Iron Man: WebSlinging Adventures
by LostWithoutCause
Summary: A crossover of Iron Man: Armored Adventures Season 1 and Spectacular Spiderman post-Season 2 . Peter is chosen to participate in an experimental partnership between the Tomorrow Academy and Midtown High. While living with Tony and Rhodey (his temporary host family), Peter makes new friends, finds an ally in the local hero, and gets a visit from an old enemy.
1. Chapter 1

**Iron Man: Armored Adventures**

"Come on, boys, this would a great experience for you two. I think a student from Manhattan would love to come see this part of New York" Mrs. Rhodes had just heard the news about the new program that the Tomorrow Academy was doing with another school called Midtown Magnet High School.

"But Mom, there's a reason that nobody is signing up. It's only eligible to the kids with the highest GPA" Rhodey protested. "

Yeah and from what I've learned, there's only one kid eligible to even participate" Tony added.

"Tony, I'm not even going to ask how you got that information. And James, I'm sure that's not the reason behind it. Now, I want both of you to go to school and sign up for this program" Mrs. Rhodes told them before grabbing her keys and walking out the door for work.

Both of the boys groaned before getting on their way to the bus stop.

"Where does your mom even plan on keeping this new guy? I mean, it's a two week long exchange, but seriously, I thought I was in the only guest room you guys had" Tony said kicking a rock as he walked along the driveway.

"You are. And unfortunately that means one of us is moving. And since I live here, that means you" Rhodey said sternly.

"Best two out of three?" Tony asked about a second later.

Three matches of Rock, Paper, Scissors later, Rhodey looked even more upset about the exchange program, obviously defeated by Tony.

Later at the academy Pepper Potts had met up with the two boys outside the school, looking like she had been there awhile.

"Ooh, tough. I can't believe your mom made you do the program. Not that it's a bad thing, but I know you guys wouldn't want to do it. I, on the other hand would love to do the program. But my dad would never let me, especially because it's a boy."

Rhodey shook his head, "between you two, we'll know this kid's life story before we even meet the guy."

**Spectacular Spiderman**

"I don't know, Aunt May. It's for two weeks, and it's pretty far away. With your health the way it is, I don't want anything to happen while I'm gone" Peter said while he ate his breakfast.

He had just been offered the chance to study at the Tomorrow Academy as an experimental partnership of the two schools.

"Nonsense, Peter, you shouldn't pass up an opportunity like this. I've heard some great things about this school, you could learn a lot over there" May encouraged the boy, "besides, Mary-Jane said she would be happy to come over to make sure that I'm okay while you're gone, bless her heart. "

This made Peter think. Well, if Mary-Jane was going to come, Aunt May would be fine. But he still didn't want to leave Aunt May all by herself. "Alright. I'll go. But I'll be calling to see how you're doing once in a while. Okay?" Peter gave in.

The Tomorrow Academy was a highly recommended school. Plus, it was only for two weeks, right?

"Oh Peter, you worry too much about me" the woman replied with a slight chuckle.

After finishing breakfast, Peter walked out of the house feeling torn still. There was still a tinge of guilt left over from agreeing to leave. If something were to happen without him there, he wouldn't be able to forgive himself. Even though Aunt May's heart attack had happened months ago, he still worried.

Peter finally made it to the bus stop, on time even. For the past few months there hadn't been nearly as many super villain attacks. Ever since the whole Green Goblin fiasco it seemed to have stunned the villains or something. Besides a common burglary once in a while, there really wasn't much for Spidey to do. But with his luck, they probably weren't on vacation and somehow he foresaw pain in his future. He didn't need his 'spider-senses' to tell him that.

When the bus finally pulled up, Peter boarded with a few other students. Already on the bus was Gwen Stacy. She, of course, smiled at Peter when he came to sit with her, but yet she still looked troubled. He knew why too. Gwen was still dwelling over their friend Harry's state. Ever since his father, Norman Osborne aka The Green Goblin, died he blamed Spiderman for wrongfully killing him. If only he knew the truth. But Peter knew this wasn't the time to tell him. It would no doubt make things worse-for both Peter Parker and Spiderman.

"Hey Gwen" he greeted.

The blonde girl moved over, allowing Peter to sit, "Hi Peter. Have you decided on whether or not you're going to be accepting the invitation to the Tomorrow Academy?" she asked.

"I think so. Aunt May says I should. And even though Mary-Jane volunteered to check up on her, I still don't want to be so far away for that long. But she is right about one thing, it is a great opportunity" he sighed.

"I think your Aunt May is right. You should go. It's only two weeks after all. It's not like you're staying permanently. Besides, I hear that there's another hero over in Long Island. Everyone's calling him Iron Man. If anyone could get some shots in of Iron Man, it would be you, since you've done such a great job photographing Spiderman for so long" Gwen encouraged him.

'If only she knew how I got those pics' Peter thought to himself. "Iron Man, huh? That would be pretty cool. I'm sure Jameson would slander his name all the way from Manhattan if he could" he commented, "Well, if both of you think I should go. I guess I should. Thanks Gwen."


	2. Chapter 2

Exactly one month and two days after the sign ups for the exchange program, it was time for the new student to be arriving. It was Sunday after noon and the trio plus Mrs. Rhodes were waiting at the train station. Everyone was looking bored, except for Rhodey's mom who looked calm with a subtle hint of excitement. Finally the train arrived and it quickly unloaded.

In the middle of all the people exiting, Pepper caught sight of who they were waiting for. They were sent some information on their exchange student including a picture, "that's him! Right there! Peter!" Pepper exclaimed waving her hands.

The teenager around Tony and Rhodey's age turned around to see the red-headed girl waving her arms to catch his attention. It already seemed a lot nicer than any welcome anyone would receive in Manhattan.

Peter walked over and gave a polite smile, "Mrs. Rhodes?" he said glancing at a piece of paper.

"That's me, hun" she responded with a motherly smile.

"So you guys are James Rhodes and Tony Stark?" he inquired.

Neither Tony nor Rhodey got a chance to respond before they were stopped by Pepper, "and I'm Pepper. Pepper Potts. Nice to meet you. What's Manhattan like? Is it nice? How are the people? Do you like Long Island?"

Peter thought for a moment before answering, "um, nice to meet you too, I'm Peter Parker, it's smaller, it's okay, some better than others, and from what I've seen, it looks like a pretty neat place."

."Nice to finally meet you Peter. I'm Tony and this is Rhodey" Tony introduced himself. "What do you say we start heading home to get Peter settled?" Mrs. Rhodes suggested politely.

There wasn't much conversation on the ride home; nearly all of the talking was done by Pepper who pointed everything out as they drove. They had all arrived at the Rhodes' residence and Peter was shown to Rhodey's room. There had been some different arrangements made before Peter had arrived, both Tony and Rhodey were in the guest room and Peter would take Rhodey's. There had been some protest, but in the end there wasn't much they could say to Rhodey's mom that would have made a difference.

Peter had gotten unpacked and they had spent most of the day getting to know one another. It was not evening time and everyone had just finished dinner. Mrs. Rhodes volunteered to give Pepper a ride home, leaving just the three boys at home.

"So, it must pretty interesting over in Manhattan with Spiderman, right?" Rhodey inquired.

"Uh, I guess. He's pretty cool, but some of the villains he fights can leave the city pretty damaged afterwards. Don't take me wrong though, Spiderman's pretty awesome" Peter nodded as he ate some more of his slice of pie.

"I can imagine. Iron Man is sort of the local hero around here. His baddies have done their share of destruction too" Tony added.

'Hmm, maybe Parker isn't so bad after all' Tony thought to himself.

His thoughts were interrupted suddenly by the phone ringing. Rhodey got up to go answer it.

A few moments later Rhodey got back and sat back down on the couch, "my mom's stuck in traffic. She says it's pretty big, but she hasn't been able to find out what's going on."

Rhodey shot Tony a serious look that Peter wasn't supposed to see. Earlier that week, Iron Man had just been fighting Killer Shrike and Unicorn. The two were able to get away, leaving Tony baffled as to their plans and whereabouts. No doubt it was those two.

Without saying a word, Rhodey had managed to get the message across to Tony, and Peter saw that. He wasn't sure why they were concealing whatever it was they were hiding, but it wouldn't hurt to go check it out. After all, he hadn't gotten to see much of the city yet. And who better to capture the arrival of the web-head himself?

"In that case I'll just pack it in early. Pretty wiped from the trip over here. Tell your mom that the pie was great" Peter said getting up.

"Uh, yeah. We're pretty beat too. Right, Rhodey" Tony glanced at his friend with a relieved expression. Rhodey nodded and then they went their separate directions. Team Iron Man proceeded to the back door to the armory….. As quietly as possible.

Meanwhile in the guest bedroom, Peter was gently opening the window to make his escape.

**Iron Man: Armored Adventures**

"All is going according to plan, Mr. Stane. The Parker kid was just picked up today" one of Obadiah Stane's men reported.

"Excellent. And who is the host family?" Stane asked.

"Uh, the Rhodes' residence, sir" the man answered with a little less confidence.

"Ugh" Stane spat before recomposing himself, "no matter. We will use this 'Peter Parker' boy and Tony Stark will /not/ interfere." Stane said Tony's name as if the taste disgusted him. "Be sure to send an invitation to Mr. Parker first thing tomorrow. And make sure that Stark is nowhere around. Whether he likes it or not, Parker will help build our latest weapon to get rid of Iron Man once and for all." "If Parker is half as intelligent Tony Stark, he will accomplish more than anything our idiot scientists have ever made. All those failed attempts. All that wasted money. You just better hope that your men's information is correct."

"Yes sir, Mr. Stane" the man said before gratefully leaving the presence of his boss.


	3. Chapter 3

'Man, what was I thinking? This place is huge, who knows how many traffic jams there are in this city' Peter thought as he ran across the rooftops now in full costume as Spiderman. However, just as those thoughts crossed his mind a streak of red and yellow whizzed passed the ol' Web-head. 'IronMan. Guess I'm headed in the right direction' Peter thought to himself. Iron Man was flying much faster than Peter could web-sling, but he could manage. He saw the general direction he was headed, plus now the sounds of sirens were becoming concentrated.

**IRON MAN: ARMORED ADVENTURES**

"Alright you two, break it up" Iron Man daunted, "why don't you just give up now and we'll call it a night? What do you say?"

The two glanced to each other and grinned, Unicorn was the first to speak up. "Iron Man, we were worried you wouldn't show."

"Well, I'm here. But are you two ready?" Tony retorted, actually, he was surprised at the confidence that they were showing. Last time he'd run into the duo, they ran off when they thought the bombs were going to destroy the city.

"Oh, we're ready" this time it was Killer Shrike who responded. Then, before Tony knew it, he was being attacked and it was causing damage!

Tony shot up into the air, sending a few repulser beams Unicorn's way. But he was soon tackled to the ground by Killer Shrike. Tony was finding out real fast that they'd learned a few tricks since Happy's encounter with them.

**/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\**

By the time Peter found a good building to stand on the roof of, Iron Man was already on the scene. He was fighting two men in very strange, very high-tech costumes. The two strange villains, one firing lasers from its head and the other flying in the air firing some sort of energy at IronMan. As Peter continued watching the fight he now saw Iron Man starting fall a little behind the blows. It was about this time that he leaped down from the building and decided to lend a friendly neighborhood hand.

Spiderman came from seemingly nowhere. He landed right on Killer Shrike's back, forcing him to the ground," two against one? Now that just doesn't seem fair."

"What now?" Unicorn looked over to his fallen comrade.

"Just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man dropping in for a visit" Peter shoved Killer Shrike down as he tried to get back up.

The distraction seemed enough to get Iron Man the upper hand on Unicorn. "Spiderman? A little far from home, aren't we?" Iron Man asked getting up now.

"Oh you know, broadening horizons and what not" Spiderman replied leaping away from the now recovering Killer Shrike.

"Well, since you're here…" Tony grinned under his helmet before using his repulsers to knock Shrike back down. The two vigilantes were now taking on one of the two baddies. Peter was doing his best with Unicorn, using his heightened acrobatic skills and 'spidey-senses' to dodge the head lasers and hopefully wear this guy down.

"So what's the story with these two wonderful personalities?" Peter inquired in his usual quipping tone. He shot two webs crisscrossing opposite directions and pulled a manhole cover and an unearthed fire hydrant each toward Unicorn.

"Killer Shrike and Unicorn. The usual hired help for an underground crime syndicate. But what they're doing back here again, I don't know" Iron Man replied before muttering to himself, "or how they're getting this powerful. I should be taking down these guys with one hand tied behind my back." These blasts shouldn't be this powerful.

"You're a bit behind on your information, Iron Man. We don't work for the Maggia anymore. There's another interested party who's paying even more" Unicorn blasted the armor-clad hero.

"Shrike and Unicorn? As in the bird and magical pony?" Peter asked in a mocking tone. His 'spidey-sense' drew his attention behind him. He did a quick backflip landing behind Unicorn, "With names like that I could see why you guys stay underground."

"I'm going to send you back to Manhattan!" Unicorn roared, throwing a punch Peter's direction, which Peter managed avoid by flipping back a few yards. However, upon landing, an energy beam caught his chest, sending him to the ground.

Pretty soon the heroes were back to back, rotating from one baddie to the other. "They've gotten stronger since last time I battled these two goons. Their tech has actually been upgraded. You didn't happen to bring anyone else with you by any chance?" Iron Man asked still blasting away with his repulsers. Who was this 'interested party'? This couldn't be good.

"Uh, no, I don't seem to remember packing back-up. I'll have to remember to do that next time" Spiderman asked dodging the blasts and shooting an occasional blinding web.

"Oh, we didn't just get a tech upgrade. That's just one of the new work benefits" Shrike chortled.

"Alright then. Guess it's time for the –"Tony was cut off by the weird action of the two villains. They both glanced at each other and then threw down some devices. Flash bombs, so bright it was temporarily blinding not to mention enough to temporarily bring down Tony's visual grids. By the time that they recovered enough, they were still stunned, and both Killer Shrike and Unicorn were gone.

"They're gone again. This is bad. Aw, man, that means they're definitely up to something. No doubt a team up" Iron Man complained as his systems rebooted themselves.

"Boy, you Long Islanders sure now how to make a guy feel welcome. This happen often?" Peter asked still rubbing his eyes.

"Not really. But it also depends on your definition of often. So, how long are you in town?" he asked.

"Me? Oh, well, I'm not sure. Kind of depends on how long Manhattan could survive without their Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman" Peter said before slinging a web, high into the building. He had to get back ASAP. With the traffic flowing again, he wasn't sure how long it would take Mrs. Rhodes to get back. No doubt she would be the kind of parent that checks in to make sure everyone is really in bed.


	4. Chapter 4

"I can't believe you just teamed up with Spiderman" Rhodey's voice sounded excited through Tony's systems.

"I know, right? That was pretty cool. But Shrike and Unicorn still got away" Tony replied, "remind me to run a diagnostic and upgrade the armor's optical sensors when I get back."

"So, why do you think Spiderman was in Long Island? I know what he said, but why would he come just to come?"

"I'm kind of wondering the same thing. Not that I'm complaining about the backup, but still" Tony replied as he flew through the cloudy sky. "We could ask Peter. I mean, he is from Manhattan. Maybe he would know if there was an unaccounted for baddie or something. Probably chasing down an escaped thug or something"

A few minutes later Tony arrived in the Armory. He took off his helmet and walked over to where Rhodey was watching the news report. Everything was just sort of crashing behind the anchorman. The police were keeping the news stations at a safe distance. The press couldn't get within a mile radius. You could barely see anything behind them. That was until they saw the sky cam. It actually captured a lot of the fight; even though they were pretty high up.

"We'll ask Peter about it tomorrow. I'm pretty beat"

"Come on, Man. We'd better get going. If my mom gets home before we do, Killer Shrike and Unicorn are going to be the least of our worries" Rhodey got out of his control chair.

Tony nodded and proceeded to lock the armor back into its pod.

Now, there wasn't anything wrong with Mrs. Rhodes coming to check in on the boys. It was understandable. But at the same time, it was highly inconvenient. For both heroes. Spiderman couldn't fly like Iron Man, so there was a bit of a delay getting back to the house. Tony and Rhodey had arrived at the house about ten minutes before Peter. However, they also had to make sure not to let Peter hear them, so they went in through the bedroom window.

Once Peter had arrived, he had to make a quick detour around the house. Mrs. Rhodes was pulling into the driveway, and of course, his window was facing said driveway. The woman had vaguely noticed him bolt around the corner of the house. And like the responsible mother that she was, Mrs. Rhodes stepped quietly to go investigate. She didn't want to alarm the boys, or whoever she thought she saw. Fortunately, Peter was no amateur at stealth getaways. As soon as he had been spotted, he was on that roof as soon as he turned the corner. Once Mrs. Rhodes was at the side of the house, the teenager climbed inside the window, replacing the screen as carefully as possible before kicking off his shoes and changing into his pajamas-all before Rhodey's mom even came inside the house. She concluded that it was just a shadow from her headlights.

The next morning all three boys were woken up a little early for a special breakfast that Mrs. Rhodes had made. Not surprisingly the pancakes were devoured within minutes. Soon they were sent out the door for school.

The trip to the bus stop was pretty quiet. The two heroes were wiped from the night before, and Rhodey wasn't about to break the silence with awkward conversation. It wasn't until they got to the bus stop that the silence was broken. "Tony, Rhodey! Oh, hi Peter! I keep forgetting that you're coming to our school. It's going to be really cool! Ooh, I hope you like the Tomorrow Academy. It's really nice. Well, for a school, I mean. But still" Pepper had started in full speed, once again stunning Peter with the bombarding of words. Still, he had managed to catch most of it.

"I'm pretty excited. It'll be a nice change of pace. From what I've heard, they offer programs and classes that are more advanced than Midtown's" Peter commented. He had no problems with having more of a challenge in his classes. In fact, he even got signed up for a few that weren't available at his school.

"Oh, definitely. And I'm sure you'll do great. You were one of the smartest kids in your school after all. But you already knew that, since you're here" Pepper beamed as the bus pulled up to the curb.

The drive was mostly filled with Pepper leading the conversation. Once in a while Peter would get a chance to answer, and Tony or Rhodey would actually get a chance to put a word in.

The four teens exited the bus together when they arrived at the school. Peter looked up at the size difference. It wasn't like he was from a small town or anything and wasn't used to tall buildings, but his school was quite a bit smaller. Needless to say, he was actually really glad he decided to do this program. This was going to be a great opportunity. And best of all, there weren't any football players or cheerleaders to mess this up.

Pepper headed off to her locker while Tony and Rhodey took Peter to the Admissions Office where he was assigned a temporary locker and given a map for all his classes. The two boys offered to show Peter where his temporary locker was since the map wasn't too specific on where it was. On their way, another familiar face was there to greet them.

"Tony, Rhodey, how's it going, bros?" the basketball player greeted them, hanging his arms on both Tony and Rhodey's shoulders, much to their discomfort. Already Peter liked him better than the jocks back at midtown. "Who's the new kid?"

"Hey, Happy" Tony greeted back, subtly slipping out of Happy's hold.

"This is Peter. From the project with Midtown High. Peter, I'd like you to meet Happy Hogan" Rhodey volunteered, managed to get out of under Happy's arms .

His name was Happy….Okay then. Peter gave a polite smile acknowledging the taller boy as Happy then proceeded to shake his hand wildly.

"Doesn't talk much, does he?" Happy commented with a huge grin before shrugging it off. Then what Rhodey said seemed to dawn on him, "OH! You're the smart kid from Midtown."

"Er, I guess so" Peter answered awkwardly rubbing the back of his neck. He wasn't exactly used to being asked such blunt questions about that. And honestly, he wasn't one to really brag about that anyway.

He then proceeded to lean his larger person on Peter's shoulder, "Oh! Guys, have you heard? Spiderman's in town! It was on the news last night. It's awesome. Though I think Iron Man's pretty much got the market on the whole hero thing."

"Ugh, no! Spiderman's totally amazing. AND WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S IN TOWN?!" Pepper was practically bursting with excitement at this point.

Tony raised an eyebrow and was about to start the calming down process but Happy beat him to the talking. Hey! Since when was Pepper a Spiderman fan?

"Please, the 'bot's got him beat. Everyone knows robots are about a thousand times smarter than humans" Happy countered, getting off of a staggering Peter and crossing his arms.

Just then the bell rang and Rhodey sighed, "hey guys, that's the bell. We'd better get going."

"He's…friendly" Peter raised an eyebrow slightly. Was everyone here this ecstatic? Well, Tony and Rhodey weren't, but so far everyone else he met could sure make a guy feel welcome.

"He lives up to his title" Tony laughed a bit as they started toward the lockers again.

"Thanks guys. I've got it from here. I'm sure I'll find it" Peter told Tony and Rhodey as he put some of the textbooks into the locker. "I don't want you to be late to class on my account."

"Okay. We'll see you later then" the two said as they left to their own class. It was about two minutes after the bell rand and the hallways were pretty empty by now. A few stragglers here and there, but most were already in class.

Luckily the map was accurate for the most part and he found his way to class. Once in the classroom, he found himself sitting next to a girl, same age as him. At first she didn't seem to give him a second glance. That was, until the teacher brought it to everyone's attention that he was the student from Midtown. He hoped that not every teacher would feel the need to do that.

The girl next to him gave him a glance over after he was introduced. "Hi. I'm Whitney Stane. So, you're Peter Parker. I hear you're staying at the Rhodes' house?" she inquired.

"Nice to, uh, meet you, Whitney. Yeah; for the whole trip. Are you good friends with them?"

"I've known Tony since we were little kids. He's a great guy" Whitney answered, before adding, "And Rhodey's okay too."

Peter nodded, and then looked to the front as the class started.

The bell rang after class was over. Already Peter was enjoying the class. He was sure not going to get this at Midtown. This was definitely more his caliber.

"I'll see you around, Peter" Whitney said as she parted from her seat.

"Nice meeting you, Whitney" he replied.

Meanwhile, Tony and Rhodey were coming out of their classes. Pepper came practically charging at them. "You guys!" she exclaimed, "why didn't you tell me that you met Spiderman?!" she lowered her voice at the last part. "You know I've always wanted to meet him. He's like, the coolest!"

"Hey!"

"No offense, Tony"

Rhodey couldn't help but snicker in the background.

"When did you say _Spiderman_ was the _coolest_?" Tony replied, taken aback by Pepper's sudden interest. Really, the subject of the witty web-slinger never came up. And there were lots of conversations when Pepper was around. "Anyway, it was more of a brief thing. It wasn't like we got together and talked about the weather or anything. He helped with Killer Shrike and Unicorn and was gone before much else could be said."

"Uh….Anyway, did you guys win? Was Spiderman awesome?" Pepper asked.

"No, they both got away. And I don't know, Pepper" Tony answered.

"Could you at least get his autograph for me? Or, ooh!" Pepper's eyes opened even widers, matching the grin, "do you think I could meet him!?"

"Pepper, calm down. I don't even know if he's still in the city. Besides, it's not like I'm going to just go right up to him and ask him for his autograph" Tony replied, "and no, I will not take you to go find him" he added quickly.

The rest of the school day was pretty uneventful. Peter had little trouble getting adjusted to the classes, despite every teacher bringing his presence in the class. It was safe to assume that it was a required script that they had written down. He could especially tell when the teacher would go through it in a rather rushed and uninterested manner. Only one or two seemed genuinely enthralled by his attendance. It wasn't like he expected more. Or wanted more for that matter.

At the end of the school day, Peter was on his way to meet Tony, Rhodey and Pepper outside the school. They were going to show him around the city. However, he was stopped by the lady who worked in the Admissions office. He followed her into the room and she closed the door behind them. In the office, a man was waiting for him. Now, this should have sent his suspicions off the charts. But he wasn't glaring daggers at him. And he didn't give him an evil grin either. Instead he wore a suit and an ear piece and was rather blatant to show that he was there to go in, do what ever it was he had to do and get out. Well, Peter wasn't going to hold him up.

"Hello, Mr. Parker. I'm here on behalf of Obadiah Stane, current CEO of Stark International" the man introduced himself. Well, sort of. "Mr. Stane has heard of your presence here at the school and would like to extend a personal invitation to Stark International to meet him personally. He believes that you would find interest in the company" the man said pulling out a small card. "Please give your response at your earliest convenience before the end of the week."

Peter took the card and gave it a look over before nodding, "uh, thank you. I'll do that." Peter had heard a lot about Stark International. In fact, he was really excited about the tech that the company was working on. He was liking this trip a lot already.

The man nodded and then thanked the receptionist before exiting the office. Peter read the card over again before putting it into his backpack. He would definitely be calling later. With that little awkward meeting over and done with, Peter continued to his previous route and walked outside to find his new friends waiting. Pepper was commanding the conversation while Rhodey seemed to be genuinely listening with Tony looking to be in a whole other place. Pepper was the first to notice Peter, of course.

"Hey, Peter! Ready to explore the rest of the city?" Pepper called out as the boy approached.

"Ready as I'll ever be" he replied, forgetting about the card at the moment. He smiled as the trio got up and led the way as they turned the corner of the school.


	5. Chapter 5

**Authors Note: Hey guys. So sorry for the long break. But after long last, I have completed this chapter. Hopefully it will live up to your expectations. And I also plan on becoming much more consistent from now on. I've got more time on my hands now, so I should be updating a lot faster. I'm hoping to have a chapter done every other week. So keep your fingers crossed, and enjoy the latest chapter of "Iron Man: Webslinging Adventures"**

* * *

><p>The basic tour went over well. Pepper did most of the talking and pointing out. But there were a few places that Tony and Rhodey were able to bring to attention. Now the trio, plus Peter were making their final rounds and were getting ready to start heading back home.<p>

"Oh yeah. Peter, do you know anything about Spiderman being in town? I saw on the news last night too that he and Iron Man were fighting Killer Shrike and Unicorn" Tony glanced over at Peter as they walked.

Leave it to the press to totally bring it to everybody's attention. Okay, so it was their job, but still, that didn't make it less inconvenient. In fact, with it being so blown up, he was surprised that Jonah hadn't already called him to get the photos already. He guessed it hadn't reached Manhattan yet. "Spiderman's in Long Island? No, I haven't heard anything about that. Well, besides what I heard from Happy" he answered. "My boss is going to love that" he added sarcastically.

"I thought everyone in Lower Manhattan loved Spiderman" Rhodey raised an eyebrow in confusion.

"Uh, there are a few that have their different opinions. To most people, he's a hero. For some, and by some I mean J. Jonah Jameson, he's 'a mask wearing vigilante causing more trouble than the villains he puts away' or something like that. You get the point" Peter said mimicking the gruffness of his boss' voice while mocking one of the Jolly One's anti-Spiderman rants.

"Hmm, maybe one of his rogues made their way here? Have you heard anything like that?" Tony asked.

"No, not that I've heard" and thank goodness, no better way to ruin a trip than to be tracking down Sandman or Shocker. "I'm just as surprised that he's here as you are. Contrary to popular belief, I don't always know when he's going to pop up" Peter commented. Honestly, he had no intentions of hero-ing while he was on this trip. And obviously for good reason. Now he had to really watch himself, it was one thing for Peter Parker to disappear in his own town. Easily looked over. But in a city that he knew little about, a little harder to cover up Spider-Man's sudden appearance.

In Stane's office, the man from the school's office walked in. "Were you able to give our invitation to the boy?" the bald man inquired.

"Yes sir"

"And was Stark around to interfere?"

"No sir. He was alone as requested"

"Good. Now leave. I have some arrangements to make for Mr. Parker" Stane said with a sly grin. As soon as the man left, Stane turned to a small screen. A darkened image of a man appeared as Obadiah pushed a button. "We're waiting for the boy's response. The plan is on schedule. And you're positive that Parker will have the answers we're looking for?"

The man's silhouette showed none of his features but his actions showed plenty. He nodded, "positive. Don't worry, Obadiah, Peter Parker will help you with your little experiments. And I assume my presents did the job?" The voice was heavily filtered, Stane's computer tried to reverse the distortion the first time they had contact but ultimately failed.

"Well enough, they're distracting Iron Man. But you said nothing of Spider-Man's appearance"

"Spider-Man? He left the homestead, did he? No matter, Shrike and Unicorn should be able to take care of that now that they have my upgrades"

"We'll see. They ran off at the first sign of trouble"

"Sur le contraire, de chauve ami, I told them to return. If I would have known the web-slinger was in town, I would have let them have at those two pesky heroes. No matter, they'll get their chance. As they say, no sense crying over spilled milk. Ta ta for now."

Stane scowled at the now blank screen. Whoever this guy was, he was infuriating! He sure knew how to press his buttons. But he was doing something right. Obviously the two usually incompetent thugs now had an edge on the heroes. And if Iron Man were to be taken down by this mysterious stranger's upgrades, he wouldn't complain. As long as his invention was completed, he wouldn't lose any sleep over who gets rid of Iron Man.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

It was starting to get late and the four teens were already back at Rhodey's hanging out in the Compound. They'd been finished with homework for at least an hour already. Actually, the trio would be down in the armory by now tracking the whereabouts of the villains. But with Peter there, they couldn't just leave him somewhere. Not without either exposing Tony's identity or getting grounded by Mrs. Rhodes. Neither choice was desirable. So now they were all kicking back in the chairs that were set up on the second floor.

There was an awkward silence that had been going on for at least fifteen minutes. Tony was off in his own thoughts trying to figure out who could have supplied Killer Shrike and Unicorn with those upgrades. As far as he knew, Mr. Fix was still off the radar. He could have been behind it, but this didn't seem his style. There were so many missing pieces. If he could get into the armory, he could figure this out. But for now, the armory was off limits. Until he could find some way to slip away that is.

Suddenly, Tony began hearing some calls from the police station through his modified earpiece. It wasn't Shrike or Unicorn as far as he could tell but it seemed pretty urgent. He had to get to the armory without tipping off Peter. That's when he had an idea. He shifted casually in his seat and looked over to Rhodey, "hey, did your mom say what she was making for dinner?"

Rhodey just sort of gave him a confused look, but judging by Tony's 'I need a distraction' look, he caught on. "No, she won't be getting home 'til late"

Then, Pepper's amazing perceptive skills came in handy yet again, not to the surprise of Tony who knew he could count on the redhead to pick up on what was happening. "I'll run to the house to grab some snacks. Peter, would you mind helping?"

Honestly, Peter was in the dark as to what was happening. Things just took a strange turn. But, he wouldn't refuse food. "Sure" he nodded and then got up to follow Pepper.

"Thanks guys" Tony called as the two exited the building. And as soon as Pepper and Peter were gone, he and Rhodey made a beeline for the stairs. "Okay, there's a fire downtown. The police are saying people are trapped inside. They haven't figured out the cause, but we can't rule out Shrike and Unicorn just yet" Tony informed his friend as they ran to the Armory.

"Alright, be fast. We don't know how long Pepper can stall" Rhodey warned, following into the hidden room.

"Got it. I'll try to get back as soon as I can. But you might want to wait outside, just in case they come back" Tony was already leaving the tunnels and was blasting off toward the fire.

"Copy that" Rhodey said exiting the armory once Tony made it out into the city.

"Did you just say 'copy that'?" A slight chuckle escaped as he drew closer to the fire.

"Shut up" was all Rhodey said as he started back toward the stairs. Muffled laughing could still be heard through Tony's attempt to conceal it, and Rhodey just shook his head.

"Alright, well, it looks like your everyday electrical fire gone inferno" Tony reported heading into the blaze, his computer was already analyzing for the cause.

"No super villains or psychotic monsters?"

"No, doesn't seem like it. This should be a piece of cake"

"Alright. Call if anything changes"

"Copy that"

"Jerk." And with that, Rhodey hung up the phone, cutting off the hero's chuckling. He walked up the stairs and headed back to the stairs, moving the books and papers out of the way for the snacks. He's finished just in time because he now heard laughing outside.

"And then Rhodey comes out from behind the counter and there's milk all over the place"

"That's hilarious. Kind of reminds me of when Harry and I were little, we were at this café with my uncle. Harry thought it would be funny to shake my soda and spray me, you know, the classics? But my uncle Ben had ordered the same kind of soda and grabbed mine by mistake. Uncle Ben was sprayed and the waitress felt so bad. She was nice enough to get us all new sodas, you know, in case any more of them were shaken. She thought that she had shaken them by mistake or something. And Harry was bummed the rest of the night even though Uncle Ben had laughed the entire time" Peter shared as he helped open the doors to the compound. It felt kind of nice remembering stuff like that. Ever since the accident with Norman, he knew nothing would be the same with Harry again. He missed those days.

Pepper laughed and then looked at Rhodey's baffled expression. She just started cracking up again, which made Rhodey look even more confused than before. "See? That expression right there!"

"Just like that? Oh man, I could imagine" Peter started chuckling with the redhead.

Rhodey crossed his arms, apparently not too keen on being the subject of their laughter. "I don't even want to know"

After he was able to contain himself, Peter took a deep breath to finally put an end to the final fits of chuckling. "Peace offering?" Peter offered an apologetic expression, holding up a platter of nachos and a bowl of leftover spaghetti from the others night.

"Don't mind if I do" Rhodey said taking some nachos.

Peter set down the platter and glanced around, "where's Tony?"

Without looking away from his plate, Rhodey gave his answer "bathroom."

Pepper was eating away at the nachos when she chimed in, "you'll get used to it. He goes to the bathroom a lot."

/\/\/\/\/\/TimeSkip/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

The group had just finished eating when Tony walked in. Peter noticed him coming up the stairs and glanced over to him, "there's still some spaghetti left. Rhodey and I kind of ate them all."

"Hey, don't blame me" Rhodey shot back with a non-offended-but-highly-amused smile glued to his face.

"Ha! You two ate those chips so fast, I thought you were going to fight over the plate" Pepper chimed in happily.

Tony was glad they were all getting along. It appeared that they had no problem keeping Peter occupied while he was away. The teenager grinned, "that's fine. My fault for leaving Rhodey alone with food."

"We were just about to head inside. It's late and my mom's going to be getting home soon. You good with taking it to go?" Rhodey asked his friend.

"Actually, you guys go ahead. I'll stay back here and clean up" Tony offered. He glanced at Rhodey, again silently communicating his intent. The boy genius needed to get in that compound. There were just too many questions to be answered.

"I'll stay and help" Rhodey said, faking some enthusiasm, and then flashing a glare at Tony, unseen by Pepper or Peter.

As soon as Peter and Pepper left, Tony and Rhodey headed toward the stairs. "You know we have to actually clean up everything. Right?" Rhodey asked.

"Uh, yeah. Hadn't really thought about that. We'll work on that later. Right now, we need to track down Shrike and Unicorn and that tech" Tony replied, ignoring the look from Rhodey. Instead he just took a forkful of spaghetti and shoved it in his mouth. He really was hungry. Putting out an inferno did that to a person.

Meanwhile, Pepper and Peter came into the house. Mrs. Rhodes was cleaning up the kitchen already. The two didn't made a huge mess, but there were dishes to put away still from the nachos and containers. "Mrs. Rhodes, you don't have to do that" Peter said coming into the kitchen to finish cleaning. After all, he was no stranger to doing the dishes. Aunt May made sure of that.

"It's no problem, Peter. You kids didn't make that much of a mess" Mrs. Rhodes replied with a smile before returning to her work. "Where's Rhodey and Tony? They were with you, right?" she asked, still occupied in the dishes.

Peter leaned on the counter, "they stayed back to clean up in the Compound."

"Oh? Well, that's nice of them" she replied. It was great that the boys were helping, but usually it was like pulling teeth to get them to clean the compound. "Pepper, I'm almost finished here, then we can head out."

The redhead nodded and then headed to the couch, followed by Peter who let the woman work. The two chatted some more and Peter actually learned a lot. Pepper and Rhodey had been friends since Middle School and Rhodey met Tony in Elementary school, though Pepper didn't meet Tony until recently. When the conversation ended, it was quiet for about five seconds before Pepper started up another topic. It was strange, usually Peter didn't do so much talking. He was pretty quiet, until he put on the mask. But as Peter Parker, this much social interaction was a bit alien.

"So, Peter" Pepper began, "what's it like, taking pictures of Spiderman? Have you met him? Is he cool? I bet he is. UGH, I want to meet him so bad." After all, Spiderman had been around longer than Tony had been Iron Man. She'd been a fan of Manhattan's hero since he began popping up.

"Um, Spiderman? He's pretty cool. I've talked to him a couple times, mostly just to let me know where to be so I can get the pictures. Other than that, I don't really know anything about him" Peter lied easily. It was such a well-rehearsed response that he didn't even have to think about what he said anymore. Not like his first few months of donning the mask. He was surprised he kept his identity a secret.

Pepper shifted forward from her seat, now she was excited. "What about a few months ago when Venom told everybody you were Spiderman? He'd have to have talked to you then, right!?"

Oh, that mess. If there was one event he wanted to forget it was that. "Not really. Neither of us really liked that point in time. If anything, we kept our distance."

"Oh" There was slight disappointment to her tone, but any trace of it was gone again in a second, "but next time you see him, could you get me an autograph? That would be so great!"

"I'll see what I can do" Peter gave a small smile. Though it was nice to have someone actually appreciate what he did as Spiderman, someone that wasn't Flash anyway, the way things were at the moment, what with Spiderman suddenly appearing in Long Island the same week as Peter Parker came into town, he was better off not taking self-portraits of himself in Long Island. Way too risky.

Soon enough, Mrs. Rhodes finished in the kitchen and took Pepper home. Kind of to Peter's relief. Pepper was a huge Spiderman fan, and boy was she trying to get everything she could about him.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"Rhodey! Put the broom down and come down here! I think I found something" Tony called from the open armory door. He was busy pressing a mess of buttons, but there were several holographic "tabs" open on the large wall-screen in front of him.

Rhodey grumbled under his breath and swept the last of the junk out the door. He leaned the broom against the wall and started toward the stairs. Clean-up duty as usual, of course he'd been busy cleaning up the Compound while Tony was in the Armory trying to run traces throughout the city for any sign of the formerly b-list villains. That was just the life of a hero's best friend. Whether he liked it or not. The door to the armory closed behind Rhodey as he entered the secret base. "Did you find out where they're getting their weapons from?"

"Yes and no" Tony began, backing up from the controls to take a look at all the compiled data scattered across the screen, "there is definitely some Stark tech in there, but nothing I've seen before. The computer even had a hard time finding it. These projects are really old. From before I was born. I found out why they weren't on file. It says that these weapons were done as a collaboration with Oscorp. All names and most of the files involved are hidden somewhere in the Oscorp systems. I don't have permissions yet, but I have the computer working on it" Tony gave a frustrated sigh, "My father never mentioned a collaboration with Oscorp before. I wonder why."

"Maybe something happened. Someone obviously went through the trouble of deleting the files for a reason. There has to be something they're protecting" Rhodey reasoned.

"You're right" Tony turned to his friend, "I just wish I knew what it was." The teen crossed his arms, staring at the screen, hoping more answers would make themselves apparent. "Oh yeah, I did also some research on Spiderman's villains, trying to see if maybe any of them had made their way into town. Couldn't find any escapes, but Oscorp's name popped up in several places, though they were never directly at fault. Lots of stolen files, technology, and several employees actually trying to kill Mr. Osborn. Sound familiar?"

"You don't think Osborn was behind all that?"

Tony shrugged, "didn't think Obadiah would do half the things he did either. But there's no way to find out now. Turns out Norman Osborn was killed a few months ago in an accident involving Spiderman and some guy who called himself the Green Goblin. There wasn't much information on that though. Oscorp's just about as secretive as Stark Industry's become. I'll be able to find out a lot more as soon as the computers find a way into their systems."

"In that case, I'm going to head back to the house before Peter wonders where we're at" Rhodey opened the door, and walked out of the armory.

"Alright, let me just finish downloading the rest of the armor's data into the computer. Tomorrow I'll see if I can track down Killer Shrike's energy flight path. Their new stuff is flashy, and that might just be what helps us out" Tony replied, pressing a couple buttons and then following behind his friend.


	6. Chapter 6

**Author's note: There was so much rewriting in this chapter. I was trying to decide which way I wanted to go with this and finally came to a decision. Hope you enjoy this chapter!**

The next morning, Tony was up extremely early. The computer had processed those energy signatures sometime around 4 that morning. So naturally he'd been over there as soon as he got the alarm to start examining them.

Rhodey hadn't been thrilled about Tony waking him up, he protested about having a test for about two minutes before going back to sleep. Tony just left it at that and headed over to the Armory. It was about 6 in the morning now and everyone else in the household was just about up. Mrs. Rhodes was already up and ready for the day before Rhodey and Peter came into the dining room for breakfast. "Good morning, boys" she greeted the two half-awake teenagers, "James, call Tony, will you? He said he was studying in the Compound."

Rhodey yawned and nodded before grabbing his cell phone from his pocket. He dialed up Tony, two rings later and Tony finally answered. "Hey man, breakfast is ready."

"Might have to pass on breakfast. Rhodey, I think I'm really close to finding out where Killer Shrike and Unicorn are hiding. If we find them, then maybe we'll find out who's supplying them with their weapons."

Rhodey just sighed and shook his head, time to think of yet another lie to tell his mom. "Alright. See you at school." After returning the phone to his pocket, he turned back to the curious faces of his mother and Peter, "Tony left early for school. Said he needed to use the science lab for something. He'll grab something on the way"

"Okay. As long as he eats something" Mrs. Rhodes replied. Sometimes that boy worried her. He got so caught up in his schoolwork that he forgot to eat.

After breakfast, Rhodey got a call from Tony, "I found them. They're staying in a hotel room under the names of Garfield Lynns and Waylon Jones. Still trying to figure out who they really are. I couldn't find anything on those names. Gonna see if Pepper can find something in the FBI database once I get a good image of them. I'm leaving the Armory now, but the computer should let me know when it gets a good shot."

"That's great. I'll see you in second period" Rhodey replied, hanging up the phone.

Tony put his phone away and armored up. It was still early, it wouldn't hurt to take a quick peek at the hotel see if he could find anything before school started. Flying up through the tunnels, Tony glanced at the map projecting itself around his peripheral vision. As soon as he cleared the tunnels, he blasted straight toward the city. However, it was proving a bit harder than expected to spy on anyone. The Iron Man armor was attracting way more tourist attention than he would have liked. People were pressing themselves against the windows to get a better look at the armored hero. So much for that. Without stopping, Tony kept flying. The last thing he needed was the word about Iron Man stopping by. That would definitely gain Shrike and Unicorn's attention. Couldn't have that. But he had to get in there somehow, without gaining attention. Since it was a hotel, people wouldn't be as used to Iron Man hovering around. Even with the Stealth Armor he'd have to use a lot of energy for close to nothing. At least with the locals, they were pretty much used to him hovering around. This was going to take a bit more planning. It would seem that in order to get anything on the inside, he'd have to put some bugs in manually. But how to do that without attracting attention. Even going in there as Tony Stark would cause some talk. As much as he hated to admit it, whoever put Shrike and Unicorn in that hotel knew what they were doing(because it sure wasn't Shrike and Unicorn who put it together. Those doorknobs could never think of doing something like that on their own). No, whoever their sponsor was did not want Iron Man snooping around. And what better place to hide than somewhere way out in the open. With that in mind, Tony shot for school.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Lunchtime came and as usual, Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, and Happy were on the roof. Peter accompanied them as they lazed around for the bell. All except for Happy, who was content taking this short opportunity to nap, were sitting around chatting about the day's schoolwork. That is, until Peter stood up and stretched his arms out, "I just realized, I left my backpack in Biology. I'll be back in a few."

The others nodded. As soon as Peter disappeared from view, Tony glanced at Happy who was still snoring away. "This morning I went to check out the hotel where Shrike and Unicorn are staying. Couldn't get anything though. Whoever is helping those two don't want me around. It's loaded with tourists and I can't get close enough to get a good sweep of the place without a crowd. I can make some bugs to plant in their room, but I'll have to get in first. I don't want to put you in danger so I'll have to do it myself. I don't know who's supplying their technology so the room could be a trap."

Rhodey crossed his arms, he hated when Tony played the Lone Ranger. But he was right in a sense, they've dealt with plenty of booby traps, and Shrike and Unicorn's arsonal was definitely packing some heat at the moment. "Alright. But how are you going to get in? You're not exactly invisible around here."

"I've already thought of that" Tony reached inside his pocket and pulled out a pair of thick-rimmed eyeglasses. "Pretty good, huh?" he asked, putting them on.

"Ooh! They're ultra-modified, high tech SUPERGLASSES! Are you going to turn them on and then look like a different person? Is it like Madame Mask's mask, but without the whole going crazy part? OH, maybe they make-"

"Actually, Pepper, they're just glasses"

Rhodey looked unamused. Pepper looked like she was still waiting for the punchline.

"You're kidding, right? You think a pair of glasses is going to throw people off? Just like that?" Rhodey inquired, raising a skeptical eyebrow.

"Well, I was going to do my hair differently, dress incognito and -"

"Just stop. Man, this isn't going to work. Where'd you even get those? You don't wear glasses" Rhodey protested.

"These are the non-prescription glasses that people wear to I guess look cool? I don't know. Some kids in the hallway were wearing 'em and so I payed them twenty bucks for a pair" Tony shrugged. He was about to defend his glasses disguise again before he saw something out of the corner of his eye. A figure darted through the buildings of the city. He turned to see Killer Shrike in the sky, he was heading somewhere. "It's Shrike. I have to follow him" he said, glancing once more at Happy. Without giving either of his friends room for argument, he pushed the button on the chest piece of his backpack. It sprung to life and with a couple seconds, Iron Man was armored up and blasted off to chase his foe.

"I hate it when he does that" Rhodey said, armed still crossed.

"Mhmm" Pepper nodded, crossing her arms in a similar manner. "Gonna hide the glasses?"

"Sure am. I'm going to head back downstairs and return these."

"I'll stay here with Happy and wait for Peter to come back." With that, Pepper sat back down and Rhodey went back downstairs.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

Meanwhile, Tony was in hot pursuit of Killer Shrike. He kept his distance, making sure not to be seen by the villain. This was insane, just when he should be blasting this bozo out of the sky, he was tailing him so that he wouldn't get caught. What'd be next? Stane making fully functional armor? Now that was funny. Ugh, but right now, it almost seemed possible with how much Killer Shrike and Unicorn stepped up their game. Honestly, it made Tony worried, which wasn't easy to do. And it killed him that all he could do at the moment was stand back and watch as he let Killer Shrike continue on his path so that maybe Tony could get an idea of who was supplying those two with their weapons and other gear.

So far he was doing a good job. Tony had managed to keep a good distance behind Killer Shrike without being noticed. Soon enough they both started slowing. They must have been getting close, which was weird because they hadn't left the city, they were only seven blocks from the school. That's when Tony noticed Unicorn come out of a building. The truly scary part about that, was the massive cannon that he was lugging. It was covered by a tarp, but it didn't take the scanners to make out what it was. Finally people started noticing what was happen. Leave it to New Yorkers to not notice the huge cannon-wielding psychopath until after he uncovered it. Honestly, these people were so involved in their daily lives that they didn't notice Unicorn walk out of the subway station and- Hold on. Subway station? Somehow Unicorn must have concealed that cannon for anyone to let him aboard. But even so, his costume was more than noticeable. Of course! He must have gotten onto the subway and then changed after his stop. That would mean that some sort of camera at some point must have caught his image! Perfect! "Computer, download all security footage from the Avenue-M Subway station and-" Tony was cut off when he saw Unicorn point right at him. Aw man, they saw him. So much for recon. Oh well, all he could do now was do what he did best. Save Long Island from impending doom. Alright.

"Nice toy. Someone must have been awfully good last Christmas" Iron Man teased as he came in closer, repulsors humming to life, preparing for the fight to begin.

"Iron Man. Nice of you to join us" Killer Shrike greeted, a cocky grin was plastered on his face.

"What? Did your new partner decide we were too much for him?" Unicorn joined in.

Okay, these two were chatty. Well, then again, they were the ones with the ray cannon. They could afford to be chatty. "Nah, I don't need a partner to take down you clowns."

"Oh really? Our last two encounters would suggest otherwise" Unicorn chuckled.

This whole taunt the hero bit was getting old. "Why don't you just put the death cannon away and save us all the time of me kicking your butts and sending you back to prison?"

"How about we destroy you now and we collect our reward?" Killer Shrike flipped some sort of switch on the cannon.

Unicorn nodded, "sounds like a plan to me." He walked behind the cannon and grabbed the handles, thumb ready against the trigger. Without further warning, Unicorn starting firing at Iron Man who just barely dodged.

Tony's readings on the cannon were going crazy. The same Oscorp/Stark Industries technology came up again. But his current dilemma was the energy reading for that blast! It was off the charts. A direct hit from that canon would short out his armor easily, not to mention the effects it could have on Tony's heart. He had to be careful. Somehow he was going to have to get in close and take out the cannon. But every time he tried going back in, they'd get closer to blasting him. The cannon had a highly advanced aiming mechanism.

While Tony was dodging lasers, the stray shots were hitting buildings, sending the city, once again, into widespread panic. Iron Man appeared to be overwhelmed by the two henchmen. This was not good.

Meanwhile, Pepper stayed on the roof of the school. She heard the explosions and immediately dialed Tony, who had no choice but to reject the call due to the concentration focused on dodging the laser blasts while Killer Shrike and Unicorn laughed like maniacs. She woke up Happy and sighed as he readily agreed to help evacuate the school. Her next call was Rhodey. "RHODEY. GETTOTHEARMORYNOW! !HURRY!" Her sentences blurred together but Rhodey managed to get most of it. He sprinted out the door while the school rallied the students into the gymnasium.

"Iron Man, fair warning, you may want to call your partner. While we've been playing with you here, our partner left a few explosives at the High School just a few blocks from here. You can either stay here and try to stop us and our cannon, or you can save the kiddies. Your choice. Because, you see, our new boss doesn't like it when heroes start snooping. He says to let you know that if you don't stop looking into his toys, he'll blow yours up. He knows how much you work to save these people" Killer Shrike's words felt like hot coals to his ears. The school. Pepper. Rhodey. Happy. Peter. All those kids would be caught in that explosion. His friends, all gone if he didn't act.

He immediately dialed Pepper. "Pepper. Get everyone out. You too. Get as far away from the school as possible. There are explosives in the school. GET OUT NOW"

"Okay" was all she said before hanging up. Pepper tried to keep a calm composure. However, she was freaking out. But explosives were about to detonate in the school. She had to find it before it went off. The school would never evacuate fast enough. It had to be somewhere that someone could plant it without getting noticed easily. Inside the school would be way too easy to be seen in. That left the roof and the basement. Good news, she was already on the roof. Bad news, she was already on the roof with the possibility of the roof being nonexistent within moments. She had to start looking and hope that her defusing skills were still up to par. Oh she wished her father would have let her watch his last econference.

"Tick tock, Iron Man. You've got five minutes before the first warning shot. After that, you have another five to change your mind. If you don't. Well, there won't be a school to save anymore Unicorn smirked.

Tony couldn't let the school go down like that. But he couldn't let these two go either. "Rhodey, you there?"

Rhodey had just gotten into the Armory. He was slightly winded but the adrenaline of the situation was enough to keep him going. "Yeah, I'm here. What's going on?"

"Shrike and Unicorn are getting ready to blow the school sky high. I need you to divert the suit's main power into the scanners. I need all the range I can get to figure out where those explosives are" Tony said.

"Are you sure, man? By the looks of those shots, you're going to need as much power as you can get"

"No choice. If we don't do something, all those people will die"

"Alright. I hope this works" Rhodey sighed.

"Thanks" Tony replied before opening another channel to Pepper, bringing her into the three way call. "Pepper, please tell me you didn't choose this one time to actually listen to me and leave the school" he hated the fact that she was in major danger at the moment, but he really needed her. But if they failed and something happened to Pepper and the others because he wouldn't let those two go, he'd never forgive himself.

"Puh-lease. Of course I didn't" she managed a nervous laugh, " I'm trying to find the explosives. I think they're hidden somewhere on the roof or in the basement"

"Rhodey and I are working on figuring out where. Once we figure it out, I'll tell you where they are and you have to disarm them exactly as I say. You won't have much time"

"Got it" Pepper said, keeping the line open. After dashing around the roof, trying to find some sort of device, she heard a faint beeping. With wide eyes, and her pulse racing, she looked over the ledge to see a cylindrical object mounted onto the wall. "Tony, I found it"

Tony sighed in relief, but it was short lived when he looked at the timer that Rhodey had set."Oh no. Pepper, get away. There's not enough time!"

However, the beeping accelerated dangerously and Pepper knew exactly what was coming next. She gasped and turned away to get as far as she could from that spot, however, she wasn't in time. A deafening roar came from the mixture of flying rubble and flame. And before Pepper could even process what just happened, she noticed her feet were no longer planted firmly on the roof. Though her ears were ringing and she was in total shock, she could definitely tell she was headed straight for the pavement below. She had never screamed so loud in her life, but she had her eyes closed in preparation. This would be the end of Patricia "Pepper" Potts.

Thoughts were rushing through Pepper's head. She'd never see Tony or Rhodey ever again. Team Iron Man was back to just two. She'd failed. The school and all of the people that she saw every day, would all be gone. Tony would never get there in time now. And because of this, she knew that Tony would never forgive himself. She didn't know what would happen to him. Her and Rhodey's worst fears of Tony Stark would realize. Between them, they both knew that having all that responsibility on his shoulders would one day tear him apart. And this, this would be the cause. It was her fault. She couldn't even bring herself to dwell on the thoughts of her father. They were all the family they had to eachother. Pepper's mother was already gone. Now she'd be too. Her father would be all alone and he wouldn't even know until it was all over. She just wished that he hadn't been on an assignment that day. He'd left a note in the middle of the night telling her that he'd be gone for a couple days. But she never got to say good bye.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

"PEPPER!" Tony yelled. He heard the explosion and the screaming. There was no way to make it. He would never make it. But Tony wouldn't hang up. Rhodey, grieve-stricken and tears rolling down his face, hung up for the both of them. "The scanners are at max capacity" he said in a dead voice, "sending the results now."

"There's no point. I can't make it now" Tony was furious. In his rage, he turned to face Killer Shrike and Unicorn. He didn't know who their boss was. But at that moment he didn't care. Pepper was gone and felt like hitting something. Hard.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/

A warm tear trickled down Pepper's face as she prepared for the hurting emotions to stop. However, a new pain took over. But it wasn't her thoughts or emotions. No, it was physical pain. For a moment she thought that she'd hit the ground. But there was no way she could survive a fall like that. Her brain was still reeling from shock, but as she started coming to realization, she noticed that she wasn't falling anymore. She definitely hit something. But it wasn't the ground. Pepper opened her eyes and to her amazement she was travelling up. It couldn't have been Tony that saved her though. He was blocks away. Even at top speed, he'd never make it. Plus, being caught by Iron Man was a lot harder than this. That could only mean one thing.

"For future reference, I wouldn't suggest attempting that again without the aids of jet boots or web-slinging. It could be dangerous" came the most wonderful voice in the world. Never once in her life was she ever so glad to hear someone. "Hold on tight" Spiderman had her held in one arm and kept them up in the other. Suddenly they were facing the other way. With the arm that he was holding her with, he shot a large spread web that caught the rubble just in time from collapsing on the students and faculty below. Then before she knew it, they turned yet again, this time Spiderman gently shifted her to his other arm just in time to shoot another web until they swung up to another rooftop.

Pepper's throat was raw and her thoughts were so scattered. It wasn't like she'd never been in dangerous situations before, but she'd never been so scared because Tony was always there to save the day. But this time he wasn't. If Spiderman hadn't been there, she would have been street pizza. "Thank you...So...Much" she managed to choke out. She hadn't realized it, but she was still clinging on to her rescuer.

"It's okay" Peter replied softly. Sometimes being the hero took it's toll. But this wasn't one of those times. If he wasn't Spiderman, his new friend would have been gone. So many people that he cared about would be. That's why he did what he did. It was just lucky that he'd managed to sneak out of the evacuation when he did. It wasn't easy, but when he saw Happy come thundering down the stairs without Pepper, he knew something was up. He just didn't know what. With the noises from outside causing the school to panic, Peter knew it was time to suit up. He'd just finished changing when that explosion went off near the roof. That's when he heard Pepper screaming and caught her. "I have to go. Are you going to be okay here?" he asked. There could have been more people in danger and he had to make sure that the building was semi-safe so that everyone could get out.

That's when Pepper pushed away fast, scaring Peter half to death. Her eyes were frantic. The phone that she had been clutching in her now-pale hand came to her ear. She pressed a couple buttons on her phone and after a couple rings, got an answer. "I'm okay" she said simply. Cheering from her two best friends came in loud and clear from the now battered phone.

"Pepper. It's so good to hear your voice. But how'd you survive?" Tony was clearly relieved. But his breathing indicated he was in the heat of battle still.

"Spiderman saved me. But the explosives are still in the school!" Her thoughts were already back in the game. Leave it to Pepper to bounce back after nearly being killed.

"We got the scans. Give the phone to Spiderman"

"Alright" she said before handing the phone to the blue/red clad hero. "Iron Man hacked into a phone line earlier. Must have accidentally gotten into mine. The school is still in danger, you have to go back and disarm the explosives" Pepper's voice was hoarse but she managed.

Spiderman nodded and took the phone with urgency. He was already leaping from the building and was one his way back to the school in a hurry."How can I help?"

Rhodey had taken the liberty of turning on Tony's voice filter through the comm. lines. "I'll lead you through it. We have two and a half minutes to grab and defuse two explosives."

"Okay. I'm on the roof now."

With Spiderman gone with her phone, Pepper dashed to the stairwell. She sprinted from the building. Instead of going to the Armory, she was headed home to wait for her father. There was nobody else she wanted to see more.


	7. Chapter 7

Author's Note: Eh. This chapter kind of felt a bit out of character. Sorry guys, been so busy and haven't watched the shows in a while. Next chapter will be better, I promise!

Edit: I received some input on the final reaction of the story. They brought up a good point so I edited. As of 4-15-13 I made some changes to the last part of this chapter.

Rate and Review! I'm always open to critique and any suggestions on how to improve the story. Edits can always be made so feel free to point out anything that can be changed.

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"Take a left down the next hallway. The third door to your right is going to be another stairwell. It leads to the basement" Tony instructed, still trying to get a hit on Killer Shrike or Unicorn. The two were more than happy firing at the hero from a distance. As long they had that cannon, Iron Man couldn't get close enough. Every time he tried getting a better angle, they'd keep him front and center where they could shoot. The cannon was so powerful that it cut right through the glass windows of the buildings, nearly catching Iron Man a few times as he tried getting around them for a stealth attack.

Finally Peter held the last explosive in his hand and then carefully put it into the sack that he'd fashioned from some webbing. "How much time do I have to disarm these?"

"Not much. Forty-five seconds. Maybe. I'll talk you through it and-"

"That's not enough time. I have to ditch these things now" Peter said before hanging up the phone. "And I'm going to need both hands to do that" he muttered, now racing up the stairs. Keeping track of time may not have been his strong suit, but he definitely had that mental countdown in his head. With five seconds to spare, Spiderman emerged from the hole in the roof and then chucked the sack of explosives as high as his strength allowed. The aftershock of the explosion came back hard, sending most people to the ground and causing the rest of the windows of the Tomorrow Academy to shatter. Peter shielded his head from the debri falling. Little pieces of shrapnel fell harmlessly around the school. He gave a sigh of relief and then glanced over to the original source of the commotion. Guess where he was headed next.

Meanwhile, Tony didn't very much appreciate Spiderman hanging up like that. But now wasn't the time to dwell on it. He had to trust Spiderman and do what he needed to. Too many people were at risk right now. As Tony went in for more attacks, he was once again greeted by more cannon shots. This was really getting old. Then he finally got his opening. A large explosion went off in the sky a few blocks away. Spiderman had done it! Killer Shrike and Unicorn seemed surprised. Not to mention distracted. Tony didn't waste a moment of this opportunity. He came down full speed and scooped Unicorn off the ground and away from the cannon. He came to a hard stop and let the villain roll away. He then turned and headed straight for the shocked Killer Shrike. This time however, Shrike was ready for the attack. Killer Shrike went up into the air and fired lasers at Iron Man. Aerial combat began and soon enough there was a chase afoot. Tony weaved in and out between skyscrapers, longing for the days when these two were second rate flunkies. He fired a repulsed beam at Killer Shrike and managed to get a hit. Shrike started losing altitude for a few seconds before regaining control. The bad guy then continued to use his newly upgraded arsenal.

During the exchange of laser fire, Tony had forgotten about Unicorn. Due to his concentration on Killer Shrike, he'd failed to notice Unicorn prepping the "death cannon." It was when Killer Shrike grew a wicked grin on his face that Tony looked down at the other baddie. However it wasn't soon enough because that blast hit him square in the chest. Needless to say, the pain was intense. "Armor Integrity at fifteen percent. User life support activating. Warning: Iron Man armor, shutting down" the computer was going crazy with the warnings and reports. Tony was struggling to stay conscious. His heart implant had taken some of the blast as well and was near the short out point. All the armor was shutting down. The life supports were on their last leg. He'd lost contact with Rhodey instantly after the blast. Right before the optical grids shut down, he could see Killer Shrike preparing a blast for him. "I should've stayed in school" Tony grumbled to himself right as the last of the armor's systems gave out. At this point he was just bracing himself for impact with that laser. He couldn't tell how far from the ground he was, but he knew he was dropping fast. To make matters worse, the suit was badly damaged, and life support was completely gone. He was losing oxygen and by consequence, consciousness. Which probably wasn't a bad thing.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Peter was at top speed trying to reach the fight. Even so, it was taking much longer than he would have liked to reach Iron Man. He'd tucked Pepper's phone into one of the pockets in the hidden belt, next to his own cell phone. Somehow he was going to have to find a way to get it back to her. That would have to wait for now. Spiderman had finally arrived on the scene, but just in time to see Iron Man getting a really, really big cannon shot at him and hitting the armored hero perfectly. Swinging onto the side of a building, he ran across it no different than if it were the ground. Then, right as he got closer, he shot out a web and swung down to grab Iron Man out of the air. As usual, his aim was perfect, he'd caught Iron Man and just in villain that Iron Man had called Killer Shrike, had just missed them with that beam. One thing Peter forgot to think about was that iron hurt and was extremely heavy. Definitely something to remember for future references. "Two falling redheads in one day? I am fire today! And that's not just because I saved the school from those explosives" Spiderman taunted as they flew past Shrike.

"Thanks for the save" Tony managed. Somehow he was going to need to contact Rhodey

"No probl-" Spiderman started, that is, until his Spidey Sense went haywire. He barely had time to look down to where the alarm was coming from. The cannon from earlier had been fired again. He tried to get them out of the line of fire, but Iron Man was way too heavy and they were hit. Luckily the armor took most of the hit, but Peter could still feel the raw power hit them. Not only that, but the angle that the blast had come from slammed Iron Man right into Peter. The impact was enough to send the two heroes flying. He'd lost grip of Iron Man, but they were still flying up thanks to that extended blast. Luck had been on their side and both crash landed on a rooftop, sending both heroes into unconsciousness. From the ground, all Killer Shrike and Unicorn only saw the cloud of dust and rubble from where the laser hit the building. And since they didn't see anyone emerge from that, they could only assume that the laser had done its job of taking care of Iron Man and Spiderman.

This was a major accomplishment. Now they could continue with their assignment without further interruption. A white van pulled up and they loaded the cannon into it, before driving off down the street toward the Museum of Rocks and Minerals.

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Back on the roof that the heroes landed on, Tony had jumped back into consciousness. The lack of oxygen was starting to make it hard to breathe. He couldn't see anything except little bits of light out of the damaged and dented parts of his faceplate. The last thing remembered was Spiderman catching him and then blacking out. At this point he wasn't sure what had happened to them, other than probably another blast. It would have been enough to take them out. He could tell pretty much what was going on and he had to find out if Spiderman was okay. If that blast had been from the cannon, who knew what could have happened. Tony had been relatively calm as he assessed the situation the best he could, lying on his back in almost complete blackness. That is, until he figured out that the armor locking system was jammed and he was pretty much paralyzed from the sheer weight of the suit. Something from the beam must have damaged it in a way that the backup safety measures were even down. Now he was panicking. That is, until he heard mumbling a few feet away. He could only hope it was Spiderman. If not, he was stuck in that suit with almost no oxygen. That was his main concern. Eventually Rhodey would call his cell or send another suit. But that wouldn't do any good if he ran out of air.

"Spiderman" Tony tried, frustrated that he couldn't see anything, his hearing was definitely limited by the thick helmet. Only faint unintelligible sounds could be heard maybe a few feet away. Well, at least he knew his fellow hero was still alive. "Spiderman!" he tried louder, hoping to get his attention.

Peter had been about nine feet from Iron Man. His head was pounding with each heartbeat. Though he was relieved that he still had one. After the blast from the cannon, he remembered being crashed into by Iron Man's lifeless armor. The soreness in his ribs indicated that the suit probably landed on him as they fell onto that roof. He was going to be feeling that later. Still in limbo between conscious and unconscious, he just barely heard his alias being called. Facedown on the cracked concrete roof, he attempted responded, but muffled sounds were all he could manage as he then attempted rolling over to get his breathing under control. That fall had knocked the air out of him. Finally he heard his name called again, this time more urgent. Peter collected his thoughts, took a deep breath and opened his eyes, trying to orient himself. It didn't take long due to his spider powers. "Ow. Looks like you've seen some better days" he said, seeing Iron Man. He stood up to walk over to where the hero laid paralyzed. Peter felt several joints pop and he was pretty sure there was bruising on at least two ribs, "and so have I. Just a suggestion, next time you make your armor out of Iron, build some airbags for the next guy you land on" Peter tried alleviating the situation.

"I'll try to remember that" Tony replied, raising an eyebrow slightly. It might have been the lack of oxygen to his brain, but for some reason, Spiderman's voice sounded really, really familiar. He just couldn't place it though. Which reminded him, "the armor's stuck. Something went wrong and for some reason, the air filtration system isn't working. I'm running out of air and all the backup safety protocols aren't working either. I can't get the suit off. First things first, I need you to remove the faceplate. Then try to release the locks on the forearms. That should be enough so that I can manually unlock everything else" The fight really took a toll. Something must have gotten jammed because the releases were off as well. Usually even if he ran out of power, he could still manage to get the armor off. He hated the fact that by asking this, his secret identity would be blown, but there wasn't any other choice. Even if by chance, Rhodey sent another suit, he doubted that it would get there in time.

Peter nodded, "if only the Jolly One could see me now, he'd probably find some way to turn this around on me. Again. 'Spiderman saves Iron Man? More like taking out the competition'" once again mocking his hitler-stached boss before kneeling down next to Iron Man.

This time, Tony got a crazy idea. Either he was losing his mind from no air, or Peter Parker, the exchange student from Midtown, sounded exactly like Spiderman. The gears in Tony's head began working overtime. They came from the same place, arrived on the same day, mocked this guy who seemed to hate Spiderman, and had been accused of being the same person just months before. And there hadn't been any real proof that Peter wasn't the webhead. His thoughts were interrupted by the cool air hitting his face. Spiderman, or maybe Peter, had ripped the faceplate right off the helmet. The articles were not wrong, he definitely had superhuman strength. Taking that faceplate off would have been near impossible for most people.

As soon as he'd taken the face part off Iron Man, Peter was in minor shock. "Tony Stark?" he asked in disbelief. This was crazy. Well, crazy-awesome. He'd always been curious to know who the famed Iron Man was, but he never would have guessed Tony Stark. He knew Tony was a boy genius, but never like that.

"That's me" Tony gave a cocky smile, even though he was squinting as his eyes readjusted to the bright afternoon light.

After about fifteen minutes of forced metal bending and unlocking, Tony was finally free of the heavily damaged suit. "Guess it's back to the workshop" he said, looking at the carnage that was his armor, piled in an unglorified manner.

"Have fun and, uh, remember the airbags" Peter replied, twisting his torso to prove a point. He was getting ready to swing off when Tony stopped him.

"Yeah, I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the help, Peter" Tony smirked lightly as Spiderman stopped in his tracks.

"Peter? You're not bringing up that whole Venom thing again, are you? I'm not Parker" Peter responded instantly. This couldn't be good. But he had to be careful, Tony wasn't just an everyday reporter. He was smart. Really smart. Anything he did to further disguise himself would just prove him guilty.

"You got here the exact day, knew when to show up the other night after Rhodey's mom called in an unusual traffic jam, you mock Jameson, and you have the same, exact voice. Plus I know the sneak out the bedroom window trick. Why do you think the screen was that easy to remove?" Tony countered.

"I don't know what you're talking about. But really, I'm not Peter Parker"

Tony wasn't totally convinced, but he did just get blasted. "Alright. Sorry."

Just then, as Peter was about to swing off before more accusations could be made, his phone started ringing. 'The Itsy-Bitsy Spider' jingled from his belt pocket. He pulled it out thinking it was probably Aunt May getting word of the incident at the school. However, the caller ID was not Aunt May.

"So, you just carry Peter's phone then?" Tony asked, pulling his own out from behind his back. The caller ID was none other than Tony Stark's.

Deciding that the jig was up and that there was no way out of this one, Peter pulled his own mask off. "When did you figure it out?"

"Just now"

Peter went slack-jawed.

"It's something Pepper taught me a few months back. Don't worry about your secret, we smart-mouthed geniuses have to stick together"

Peter couldn't get over that. "Yeah, definitely" Peter relaxed a bit. At least his secret was safe. Besides, at least now he'd have someone that could relate. And an ally wouldn't be horrible to have either. "So, Pepper and Rhodey are both in on it?"

"Rhodey's known since the beginning. Pepper found out a few weeks later. Used that trick"

"That would explain all the secret looks"

"Yeah, we've been doing this so long it just sort of happened"

"Must be nice being able to talk to them. But aren't you worried that if something happened, they'd be in danger?"

"It is. Without them, I probably wouldn't be where I am today. Sometimes I do, but it wasn't like I had a choice either. I take it Harry and Gwen don't know?"

"No. I thought about it. Trust me, I did. But I can't. Especially not now with how things are back home"

Tony nodded, "I get it. Hey, at least you have three new people you can talk to. I know Pepper's going to be excited. If you don't mind, that is."

Peter smiled but it faded slightly, "I bet she would be. But, I don't know. I've managed to keep my secret well, a secret, for this long. I'm sorry, but I'd really appreciate it if you didn't tell them"

Tony seemed a bit less enthusiastic. "It's going to be hard keeping something like this from them. I don't hide anything from Rhodey, I tell him everything."

Peter didn't say anything, he just watched Tony contemplate his decision.

Tony had to give this some thought. After a few minutes Tony finally nodded with a heavy sigh. "Alright. I won't tell them. It wouldn't be my place." He couldn't believe he had to keep this secret from Rhodey and Pepper. But what could he do?

"Thanks. And I'm sorry. I truly am, but this is really important to me"

"You know, they can handle it. If you ever change your mind, you won't have to worry. It never hurts to have people you can trust and talk to. Trust me. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't be here. They've helped me too many times to count"

Peter nodded, but didn't say anything further on the matter.

Tony took the hint and changed the subject, "so. It looks like Shrike and Unicorn got away again. Have to get back to the Armory and make some repairs" Tony winced, looking at the battle-damaged armor.

"Yeah. Alright. I have to run back to the school. Left my stuff in the alley behind the school. See you back at the house"

"Sounds good. Have to call Rhodey for a ride anyway"


	8. Chapter 8

Authors Note: Hey everyone. Sorry for the wait. I've been crazy busy this summer. However, I had a little bit of free time and thought 'why not do a bit of fanfic writing?' Sorry I can't write you a full-length(or good, for that matter) chapter at this point. But here's something to hold you over until I can get some time to really sit down and write something worth reading. A friend of mine came over and we just sort of had fun with this chapter. As always, Rate and Review. Criticism is always welcome. Again, this chapter is just something we wrote at about 2 AM because no one sleeps at a sleepover. Yeah...

Rhodey had finally gotten through to Tony on his cell. It took some time for the solar battery to kick in, but Rhodey was able to reach his friend, another near death phone cut off was going to drive Rhodey insane. A backup suit of armor was deployed from the armory and found its way to Tony. Using the force field projectors, Iron Man blasted off with the battered suit in tow.

Meanwhile, Peter had retrieved his bag from the alleyway. He was about change back into his civvies before remembering he had another stop to make. The second phone that occupied his belt couldn't stay with him. So Spiderman was off again, making a house call this time. As Spiderman gained altitude, he searched through the phone to find Pepper's home address. Finally he found the identity card built into the contacts and entered the address into his own phone's GPS. He did make one stop on the way though.

The Potts' household, though only occupied by two, was full of joy. Pepper's father left his assignment as soon as he heard the news on the school. Pepper had beaten him home by about two minutes. They'd celebrated that day by talking and laughing and watching 80s procedural cop shows. They were on their second season of Miami Vice when they heard a knock on the door. Pepper gulped down a handful of popcorn and jumped up, "I'll get it!"

When the redhead opened the door, no one was there. However, hanging from the top of the the door jam, there was a little net made out of what could only be webbing. Pepper beamed and grasped the net, pulling it down quickly, snapping the strange substance. It was surprisingly easy to open and a lot less sticky than she expected. The contents made her smile grow even wider. She found her phone, a little dirty from the explosion, but otherwise unharmed. Underneath she found an 8"x10" glossy photo of Spiderman hanging upside-down, next to a webbed up bank robber. It was definitely a bank robber since the bank was in the background and dollar bills were everywhere. Spiderman was hanging onto a web with one hand and giving a thumbs up with the other. In the bottom corner of the photo, the words "Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" was scrawled in a messy-but-legible handwriting. A note was also contained in the bag. It read: Thanks for the assist back there. Hope you like the picture, it's one of my favorites.

It was the least Peter could do. The picture he gave her had been one of the first shots that he'd taken of himself. Of course Jameson denied it, but he'd saved a copy of it for himself. It was one of those photos he'd kept in his backup memory card. Peter had stopped at the print shop on the way to Pepper's. Normally he would never go out of his way like this, but this was different. There weren't too many people out there that would stay behind like she did to help. If it weren't for Pepper, that school would have been finished. Then there was the fact that she was a Spiderman fan. That was always a plus.

Peter had been on his way back to the Rhodes' house when he received a text message from Tony, Rhodey's mom arriving in 30 minutes

With that in mind, Peter picked up the pace and hauled back to the house. Mask off and gloves put away, Peter came into the home to see Tony and Rhodey watching the news.

"Peter! Oh man, you're alive. My mom would have gone crazy if you would've gotten hurt. You aren't hurt, right?" Rhodey turned his attention from the story.

"No, I'm fine" he said flashing a momentary mock-enthusiastic smile for effect. "Sorry, I was trying to see if I could get some pictures of the fight for my boss but I couldn't get close enough" Peter said putting his camera and bag on the table.

"He would want you in the middle of that?" Rhodey asked, astonished by this.

"Have I mentioned he's crazy?" Peter sighed, "just one of the many perks of working for the Bugle. But hey, it's a job."


	9. Chapter 9

**Author's Note: Hooray for busy summers! Sorry guys, it turned out to be crazy, heavy on they cray. **

The next day the Tomorrow Academy was closed. It was no surprise of course but it left a lot of down time. Peter had barely gotten any sleep that last night. So many things were rushing through his head. First of all Tony Stark, billionaire, genius, high school student, had turned out to be Iron Man! The red and gold hero that almost everyone in the city loved. However, as amazing as that would have been under normal circumstances, Tony also knew Peter's identity. As long as Peter had been Spider-Man, he had been able to keep it a secret. Friends, family, enemies, all of them in the dark. But leave it to a trip to Long Island to throw everything off. This was why he didn't leave Manhattan! Well, there was nothing he could do about it. From the looks of it, Tony had done a good job of keeping his secret life a secret. With the exception off Pepper and Rhodey of course. That was so insane to think about. Peter had kept his identity secret from everyone. There were times he would have loved to tell Aunt May or Gwen or Harry. But he didn't and it was for their own protection. He would never been able to forgive himself if anything had ever happened to them because they knew who Spider-Man really was.

Peter laid in his bed on his back staring at the ceiling, just thinking. It wasn't so much worrying that Tony would tell anyone who he was, and it certainly wasn't that he thought Tony would hurt anyone thhe cared about. Peter just couldn't stand the fact that he slipped. He didn't think Tony would put it together. He didn't think that the teen genius would see that both Spider-Man and Peter Parker arrived at the same time. The heroe's thoughts were interrupted by a knocking at the door.

"Peter? Telephone for you" Mrs. Rhodes' voice rang from behind the wooden door.

Peter got up, still in his pajamas, "thank you."

Mrs. Rhodes nodded and handed him the wireless handset.

"Hello?" the boy greeted, confused by the phone call. He'd already spoken to Aunt May, Mary-Jane, and Gwen. He had already sent a message to the Bugle. In all the excitement, Peter really hadn't been able to grab any pics. But given the circumstances, the Jolly One had actually taken mercy on the kid for the first time ever.

"Mr. Parker, Obidiah Stane of Stark Industries" a friendly-sounding voice came through the phone.

"Uh, hi" honestly, Peter wasn't sure how to react. It wasn't everyday the owner of a major corporation called personally.

"I heard about what happened at the Tomorrow Academy. It's a shame. But I'm glad everyone is okay"

"Yeah, me too"

"My daughter, Whitney, goes to that school. She was very shaken up. But I didn't call just to talk about the incident yesterday. I was calling about my invitation. I assume it got to you?"

"Yes, sir. Sorry, I didn't really have a chance to call yesterday. But I'm definitely interested"

"Understandable. I'm glad to hear it. I can have a car pick you up in an hour if you'd like"

Peter paused, "I'll have to ask."

"Oh yes, of course"

Roberta was doing dishes around the corner of the hall. Peter explained the situation to Rhodey's mom. She seemed a bit surprised but in the end, agreed. It couldn't do any harm, and with the school closed, all three boys would be sitting around. This could be a good experience for Peter.

"Mr. Stane? I would really appreciate it if you sent that car over. Yes. Thank you, sir" Peter gave Obadiah the Rhodes' name and hung up shortly after that.

Tony and Rhodey had been in the armory that morning. They had been running over security footage from the day before, trying to locate the whereabouts of Shrike and Unicorn. Besides the hotel room, they had nothing. And without a bug, they had no way of figuring out what was happening. So far they were coming up with nothing. Then again, Tony was preoccupied with other things on his mind. He couldn't believe Peter was Spiderman. It was mindblowing. He had so many questions. And he wanted to tell Rhodey and Pepper! It was killing him to keep something like that from them. Especially Rhodey. He told him everything. But he knew he'd best keep Peter's secret like he asked. It was only right.

"So we've been up since 5:30 this morning, while school is cancelled, and we still have nothing?" Rhodey asked, breaking Tony out of his thoughts.

"No. It's like every street camera was coincidentally turned away when they decided to make their getaway"

"Has anyone said anything yet? Any sightings?"

"Not that I know of. I'll keep an ear out though, computer's set to pick out reports in the area. Injuries, burglaries, cat stuck in a tree, it'll catch it"

"That's great. But maybe you want to tell me why you're so distracted today?"

"What?"

"Exactly. Dude, you keep spacing out. What's going on?"

"Nothing" Tony sighed, "I guess I'm just frustrated we haven't caught these guys yet"

"You said it yourself, man, they have help. Don't beat yourself up over it"

"Yeah. Well, come on. We should probably get back to the house"

Rhodey nodded and grabbed his backpack as they exited the armory.

The boys got to the house to see Mrs. Rhodes at the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee and newspaper. Tony looked around the quiet house, "where's Peter?"

"He got invited to visit Stark Industries today"

"Stark Industries? Why?" Rhodey asked

"Apparently they heard about the exchange program and thought it would be a good oppurtunity. I think its a great idea"

Both boys looked at eachother then back to Roberta. "Alright. Well, we're gonna meet Pepper in the Compound"

Roberta nodded and Tony and Rhodey left to the warehouse.

As soon as they cleared the house, Tony sighed, "I so do not need this right now"

"Maybe he's not up to something. It could be an actual offer. They probably just want to give him a tour and send him away with a pamphlet"

Tony raised an eyebrow and sent him a look that said 'really?'

"Look, dude, you're already working on the Killer Shrike and Unicorn case. And with the way things are going, Stane is the least of your worries"

"But we know Stane. He's up to something"

"You're on edge. Tony, Stane is after Iron Man. No one but you knows about his shady dealings except you, me, and Pepper. He's not going to try anything with Peter there. Right now, Killer Shrike and Unicorn are out there and you still have no idea what they're up to. You need to focus on that"

"I-..." Tony sighed, "you're right."

"Good. Now let's get to the armory. Pepper will be here any minute"

"I can't thank you enough, sir. This is absolutely amazing" Peter said taking in the numerous scientists shuffling around the room working on different experiments.

"It is no problem, Mr. Parker. I'm glad you are pleased with what you're seeing. I hope you don't mind, but we have done some research on you, Mr. Parker. Outstanding in school and intern with the Conners. You have quite the talent" Obadiah said with what sounded like pride.

"Actually sir, I was, uh, fired from that internship" It wasn't something Peter was fond of, but he might as well tell him.

"From what we've seen, it was due to...unique circumstances. I must tell you, Peter, there is another reason I wanted you to come. Stark Industries has been working on some experimental projects and given your substantial history, we believe you will find great interest in what we are working on"

Stane led Peter into an all white room. Inside, two scientists were leaning over a device each holding a clipboard. "Excuse me, gentlemen" at the command, both men walked out of the room leaving their boards behind. "This Peter, is our prototype energy field extractor. Stark Industries is working on several self-sustaining energy sources. However, these sources have proven unstable. That is why we've been working on a way to contain, yet harvest these energies. But of course, we're still in the trial and error stages."

"That sounds amazing" Peter said as they walked around the small projector-like machine. Obadiah pushed a button on the table activating schematics, formulas, and a simulation of what the machine should look like if it was operating.

"What are your thoughts?" Obadiah asked, his face proud. If everything was going to plan, this machine would hopefully be functioning in a matter of hours.

"This is great. If you don't mind me asking, what are you having trouble with? It looks like everything is exactly like the diagrams"

"The containment field. During each one of the tests, the energy would be contained for short periods of time but would eventually escape. You could say there is a crack in the shielding"

Peter looked through the various formulas on the holographic projection. "I think I might see what your problem is" Peter then pointed out what he believed to be an error. He then explained and wrote down what his theory was. "But it's just a thought" he said, handing the clipboard back to Stane.

"Oh yes, of course. This is impressive though, Mr. Parker. You may have a scientific career yet" Obadiah examined Peter's work that was scrawled neatly on the back of the clipboards.

After a few more rooms, Peter's tour concluded and he was given a ride back home. It was nearly dinner time when he arrived. Peter walked into the house to see it was nearly empty, with the exception of Mrs. Rhodes who was planted in front of the TV. She was fixated on the news and didn't seem too happy. "Hi Mrs. Rhodes. Something wrong?" Peter asked, coming into the living room.

"Oh hi Peter. Yes, it seems someone broke into Stark Industries today, right before you got home. Iron Man went to confront the thieves, but they have him captured"

Peter focused on the television now to see Iron Man in some sort of force field being generated by none other than the very device he had seen that day! Only difference was that this one did not seem to be giving out. But Peter couldn't have fixed it? He was just guessing. Unless they actually put what he wrote into consideration which meant…..He had to fix this. But how?

_Eariler…_

Rhodey had convinced Tony to leave Stane alone for now. They'd spent most of the day in the Compound or the Armory. Pepper had been thrilled that day, sharing the souvenir Spider-Man had left hanging in the doorway. Tony had been resisting to tell both of them what he knew, especially with how excited Pepper was. But he was good and didn't say a word.

The hours drug on as the trio kept busy, but finally something happened. "There's been a robbery at Stark Industries!" Rhodey exclaimed.

"Wow, how convienient. Guess who's not going to be involved when whatever it is ends up being used to try and kill me"

"You think Stane set this up?" Pepper asked.

"Honestly, anything revolving around Stark Industries these days is probably Stane's doing" all of them were already heading into the armory. Not too long after, Iron Man shot out of the tunnels and blasted off to Stark Industries where right outside the mayhem played out.

As the armored hero arrived on the scene, none other than Killer Shrike and Unicorn stood holding what looked like the world's most high tech popcorn popper. Tony's scans were hard at work, trying to pick out any data that would help figure out what was going on lately. Though he didn't find anything connecting Oscorp with Stark Industries, this one seemed to be yet another of his dad's inventions. Tony loved his dad, but when he left, he left Obadiah with an arsonal.

"Iron Man, you made it. And just when we thought you weren't going to show up" Unicorn greeted.

"Um yeah, you didn't think I'd just let you rob Stark Industries, did you? I know the owner and I don't get along, but you know how it is. Gotta stop the bad guys" Iron Man crossed his arms, still trying to figure out what the thing did.

Killer Shrike came from above, shooting a barage down at Tony. Iron Man shielded himself with his arms then shot up. Once airborne, the repulsers activated. Fighting Shrike, Iron Man didn't notice Unicorn setting up the popcorn popper until he flipped the switch. As Tony turned to charge at the other baddy, he ran into something invisible. However, it wasn't invisible much longer. At the touch, it rippled a glowy, white, transparent globe around Tony. "What is this?" he demanded, shooting his repulser beams at the walls. Nothing happened, it just became visible again. Then came the punching, kicking, and slamming. Same results. It wasn't until later that the computer gave him the 'power depleting' warning that made Tony stop. This force field was absorbing his power. And the more he used his armor, the more power it consumed. He was stuck.


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's Note: Here we go, guys! Sorry for the wait, as usual, but we all know how life can be at times. As always, enjoy!**

Peter watched Iron Man, or rather Tony, blast the walls. He knew the device was just siphoning every bit of it. "Um, do you know where Rhodey and them are?" Peter asked the still tuned in Roberta.

"They're in the compound"

"I'm gonna head over there. Thanks Mrs. Rhodes"

"You're welcome. Have fun" she called, but Peter was already pretty much out the door. He raced to the compound to find it empty. But where could they be? Both Pepper and Rhodey knew Tony was Iron Man so they probably helped him. They wouldn't do much good in the street, so they had to have some sort of HQ. He had figured that the compound was it, but no one was there. Unless….Peter pulled out his phone, "Rhodey, hey I just got home. Where are you guys? No one's here and I don't have a key to get in the house"

The teenager was hard at work swiveling round and about as he attempted to assist Tony from the armory when he received the call. "Sorry man, we're not home. Tony, Pepper, and I went to pick up some milkshakes at the diner down the road. We thought you were going to be longer"

Peter sighed. He didn't have time for this. Peter thought that maybe he could get help to Tony without revealing his identity to Pepper and Rhodey but he had no choice. They were probably inside whatever hideout they had. "I know Tony is Iron Man"

Rhodey racked his brain for a response but between putting Tony on hold and Pepper trying to communicate to their friend, it was a bit hard. "I don't know what you're talking about. Tony isn't-"

"It's okay, he knows I know. Look, we don't have much time, I think I can help"

Rhodey was in between a rock and a hard place. "Hold on" he said to the Manhattan resident. "Tony, Peter knows you're Iron Man. He says he can help"

Tony was hitting all the plausible weak spots in the bubble trying to free himself, draining his battery in the process. When he heard Rhodey say this, a huge wave of relief swept over him. "Yes. Let him help. Trust me"

Rhodey was confused beyond belief but put Tony back on hold and picked up Peter's call again. "Peter, where are you?"

"I'm outside"

"Stay there, I'll let you in" Rhodey said, leaving the chair. Pepper had been freaking out the entire time wondering how Peter knew and why Tony didn't tell them. "Hey, how did you find out?" Rhodey said opening the large door to the armory. The line dropped.

"Helped him out of a jam" Peter's voice came from beside Rhodey after a slight thud.

"How did you-" Rhodey stopped mid-sentence. Spiderman, without the mask, was standing right in front of him as he turned around.

He had gone to inspect different parts of the building for the room, hoping to save time. He suited up just in case anyone came in. "It's a long story. But right now, Tony's in trouble. And it might be my fault" Peter said.

As soon as Rhodey managed to get his jaw to stop hanging open, he nodded and led Peter into the Armory. Upon setting foot into the armory, Rhodey dashed back to the Terminal and Pepper went crazy. "Peter, how did you find out Tony was Iron- Oh my gosh, you're Spiderman?!" she said dashing over with the broadest smile humanly possible. "How come you didn't tell us sooner? How long have you known? Thank you!" she said grappling him into a hug then releasing him moments later.

"It's complicated, since yesterday, and you're welcome" he replied. His mind was still wrapping around the entirety of the armory. It was way cooler than he originally imagined it. The place was amazing. But he couldn't dwell on that at the moment. "Rhodey, how's Tony right now? "

Rhodey glanced at the screen in front of him, "not good. His power levels are dropping and fast. The more he hits it, the more it drains him."

Peter could see the various displays on the screens, "is that his power?" he asked pointing at one of the dropping levels.

Rhodey nodded, "yeah. Why?"

"It's too low. A concentrated blast directed at one point would probably be able to short out the system. But he would have to be able to hold it for at least a minute. By the rate its falling, that doesn't seem possible. Can you contact Tony?"

Rhodey nodded and adjusted some of the controls. "Rhodey! Glad you're back. What can you tell me?"

"Tony, it's Peter. A concentrated blast from your chest cannon...thing should be enough to overload the forcefield, but just for a second. You would have to hold it for about a minute. Can you do it?"

Tony glanced at his steadily dropping power levels, "no. I wouldn't be able to activate it let alone sustain it long enough for what you're suggesting. Plan B?"

"Working on it. I'll get back to on that" Peter ruffled his hair just slightly, sighing. He closed his eyes, rolling his head back to think. When he opened them, however, he had an idea. "How hard would it be to fly one of these things?" he asked, pointing at the armors that shone under the bright lights.

Pepper lit up, "you wouldn't have to! Rhodey can use the remote control the suit from here."

"Let's do it" Peter said, holding in the excitement of the invention. But he brought himself to focus again, "Tony? Hang in there, Plan B is on the way." The connection was muted to allow the three at the armory to discuss their plans. "So, Rhodey's going to remote control the suit to the city. I'll meet it over there. Keep me updated on what's going on"

"Better plan, no offense, would be for you to get in the armor. It'll be like the bus. But way cooler" Pepper suggested.

"Uh, I don't know, guys. Webslinging is pretty fast"

"But not as fast. Come on, man, Tony's running out of energy as we speak. We don't have time"

Tony was going crazy. He was now standing still in the forcefield that was levitating about four inches off the ground. So he couldn't even use the pavement to his advantage. Shrike and Unicorn were nowhere to be seen. That was both scary and a relief at the same time. He didn't know what to think. He didn't even want to theorize where those two were. It was absolutely torture to just sit and wait for whatever Peter, Rhodey, and Pepper had up their sleeves.

The red and silver armor spun into the center. The doors closed around it as it came down. It reminded Peter of those arcade games when you actually won something and waited for it to fall into the slot. The pod opened again to reveal the suit once again. Peter slid his mask on over his face and placed his messenger bag to the side.

"Okay. Here we go" Peter muttered, now inside the centurion armor. It had only been used once, back when Pepper had that run in with Whiplash. The upgraded suit, if Peter had calculated correctly, would be able to make up for the other armor's lack of power. Resisting the urge to laugh in pure excitement, Peter thanked his full face mask for hiding the huge smile on his face. He was what could only be described as fanboying. But that was just the beginning. The faceplate closed over the webhead and everything turned on. Plenty of displays popped up and different systems came to life.

"Ready?" Rhodey's voice came in through the helmet's comm systems.

"As I'll ever be" Peter said, still unsure of his decision. It was like waiting for a rollercoaster to drop down the hill. Before he could further debate his decision, he was moving. The visual grids came online and he saw the tunnels blurring past at incredible speeds. "Oh yeah!" he exclaimed as he came to the top and then blasting off to his destination. Webslinging speed had nothing on this! It was times like this that he was insanely glad that his equilibrium could handle pretty much anything. He was definitely glad Rhodey was driving. The flying position was going against everything he was used to. His Spidey Sense was going wild. But that was mainly because of the buildings that he was weaving in and out of.

Tony watched as a second suit of armor came down. "Rhodey?" Tony asked, impressed that his best friend chanced the suit again.

"Not quite" Rhodey's voice came in the comm.

"Just your Friendly Neighborhood Iron Spider!" Peter announced through the links.

"Catchy" Tony smiled.

"Let's get you out of this thing then we can switch" With Rhodey still in control of the armor, he raised an arm and aimed at the small device. However, the repulser beam just absorbed into it, a smaller field was made visible again. Peter was hoping that would be enough. Back to the original plan then. "Okay, Plan B. You're gonna have to use the last of your power. I'll supply the rest of the blast, but there needs to be some feed from the inside. Ready?"

"Let's do it"

Soon, Tony shot off both hand repulsers while Peter utilized the unibeam, as Tony had corrected him. Both high powered blasts were being aimed at the exact spot. The white field flashed dangerously then turned red about thirty seconds in. Tony's beams were losing their power but he kept them going anyway. There was a brief moment when all five people thought that the Mark I was going to give out before the minute mark was reached. But thinking quick, Tony used some of the power from his own chest implant to keep it going. When the field finally broke, Tony jumped out of the way to the field, the suit not having enough energy to fly out. That's when Unicorn and Killer Shrike reappeared.

"Two of you?" Unicorn asked, seeing the standing Iron Man and the one on the ground.

"Haha, nope" The suit opened up all the way down, revealing the arachnid-themed hero. Spiderman lept from the armor and into Unicorn before he could shoot his laser, "ta-da!" he bowed dramatically. Killer Shrike once again became airborne before Spiderman shot a web that caught around the flying villain's feet. Using that superhuman strength, Spiderman pulled fiercely and sent Killer Shrike plummeting into his grounded partner, Unicorn. As Spiderman kept the villains busy, and Peter was a grade-a distraction by the way, Rhodey used the suit to help fly Tony's nearly lifeless one away.

"Wow, you two are resilient aren't you?" Spiderman ducked a laser beam, courteous of the avian-themed villain, "seriously though, with names like yours, still not seeing how you made it past Round 1."

"Says the insect about to be squashed" Unicorn came in with a punch.

Spiderman sighed dramatically, "for the millionth time" he dodged the punch by leaping over his opposer, "spiders" he flipped around and kicked Unicorn from behind, "are not insects" he landed, watching the villain stumble for a moment then turn around. He shot webs right over the guy's face, "they're arachnids."

Killer Shrike was starting to shoot from the air again. "You know, one day I'm gonna get that on a t-shirt or something" Peter spoke casually as he dashed down the street, avoiding getting singed by laserfire. As he ran, he picked up a metal trashcan lid. Without stopping, he turned and threw the dirty silver disc like a frisbee. It hit, but it wasn't enough for more than the firing to stop just long enough for Shrike to wince. Then the heat was on again. Spiderman kept running across the street, but he didn't stop once he got to the building. It was like the construct was just an extension of the sidewalk, because the hero kept running, right up the side of the building. He was shooting webbing balls at Killer Shrike as he ran.

"Better improve your aim, Spidey" Shrike just kept the rapid fire up.

"Oh Tweety, if I was trying to hit you, I would" Peter shot webbing into the villains face, blinding him. "See? I'm just the distraction. Pretty good, huh?"

And not a second later, Iron Man came out of nowhere, and right into the flying villain. Both went into the ground hard. Spiderman came down from the building and immediately started dodging laser fire from Unicorn. The flightless baddy came charging in with superhuman speed, luckily, Spiderman was more super than human and was able to avoid most of the charge. With Unicorn now throwing in close combat moves, Spiderman did catch a few, but he definitely dealt some out himself.

Ironman was up in the air again with Killer Shrike. "I must say, this is getting really old, really fast. Beating you two up is starting to get old, don't you think?" Tony used the forcefield to deflect some of the laser fire and used the cover to get in closer. He dropped the shield and punched Killer Shrike back. "I mean, sure, we've had our laughs, but this whole running away thing, just isn't working"

The villain recovered and aimed both wrist blasters yet again on the armored hero, "oh Iron Man, if you only knew." Tony dodged most of the fire was was taking damage "then enlighten me" he growled.

"You'll see everything. Eventually. But by then, it'll be too late" the villain chuckled.

Using the ever-loved jet boots, he kicked it into overdrive and came in top speed at Shrike. This time he grabbed both wrists of the flying bad guy and grabbed hard. He transferred power into the motor functions and was able to put out enough strength to crush the wrist blasters, and by default, Shrike's flight stabilizers. As Killer Shrike plummeted, Iron Man sped up the process and slammed into the falling villain and sent him down with a crash. Tony came to land seeing Unicorn on the ground as well.

Spiderman came down from a streetlamp. "Good work" the arachnid-themed hero congratulated his armor-clad ally. Both heroes high-fived.

"Thanks for the save. I'd be a dead battery if it weren't for you"

Unicorn charged his horn and fired at the two celebrating good guys. Both jumped out of the way. Iron Man hovered into the air, ready to avoid more lasers. But Spiderman came in for the fight. Unicorn went to charge and punch again, but Spiderman came in with one of his own. It connected with substantial force right into the villain's jaw. Unicorn was down for the count. "That takes care of that problem" Spiderman grinned. Peter and Tony regrouped after they tied up the villains with street signs, thanks to the 'fully juiced' armor. That's when an explosion went off, knocking the two off the ground and sending them flying a few yards. By the time the two made it back to their feet, all they saw was an unmarked van peeling around the corner and Unicorn and Shrike were gone.

"We just let them go?"

"That was a nice punch"

"Sure was"

"Did it land?"

"Sure did"

The last punch Spiderman delivered, he held a tracking device. When the punch hit, he put the device right at the edge of the hairline with his thumb. Peter got the small tracker when the two high-fived on the street.

Tony flew Peter to the rooftop that he had the Mark I waiting on. He gave it some power from the centurion armor. It would be just enough for it to fly back. Peter loaded back in and Rhodey assumed remote control. Both headed back to the armory.


	11. Chapter 11

**Author's note: Way too long for this chapter. I definitely need to rewatch both shows. I'm starting to lose the characters. And chapter length. So it is on my to-do list. Right after I watch Doctor Who 50th Anniversary!**

"So we're all on the same page now, right?" Rhodey questioned, crossing his arms. All four teens stood in the armory now an hour after the fight. The armors were being repaired and recharged, Peter had his civilian clothes over the Spidey suit and both Peter and Tony explained everything up to this point.

"Yes. And I'm sorry I didn't tell you guys, but I couldn't betray Peter like that. Not after all he's done" Tony apologized for the millionth time.

"It's okay, Tony. We understand" Pepper offered a reassuring smile. As much as it killed her, she had to remember that Peter really didn't know them that well. And from what he told them, even people he did know well didn't share his secret. It must be so lonely.

"Yeah, we do. It's not like we would expect Peter to tell us just like that. You had good reason. Both of you" Rhodey added.

Peter smiled, "thank you."

Tony put a hand on Peter's shoulder, "now that we're all together on this, welcome to Team Iron Man." The two teenage heroes shook hands.

[italics]Two days later...[/italics]

"You know, I used to wear glasses" Peter held up a pair of large, black, square-framed glasses.

"Switched over to contacts?" Tony asked, working on the computer in the Armory. Rhodey was actually working on school assignments at the main house. Homework proved to be a challenge with the two geniuses at work in the Armory.

"Actually, when I got my powers, I didn't need them anymore. Feels weird to be wearing them again" Peter put the frames back onto the table and starting tinkering with his web shooters. The tools and tech in the armory were a lot more sophisticated than the ones he used at home. Why not put some of it to use and make a few upgrades?

"Wow, that's amazing. If you weren't here, I'd say that was impossible" Both heroes had given full backstories and shared stories.

"I would too. So you could imagine my surprise" he laughed.

Tony finished pressing buttons on his computer and a progress bar flew to 100% in just a matter of seconds. "That should do it. You should be fully equipped for the hotel mission now. Thanks again for helping" he leaned on the console, twisting his back. They'd been standing around the armory since early that morning.

"My pleasure. This is going to be sweet. Even if I didn't do it, I'm sure you could have found someone" Peter was of course referring to Pepper who had begged to be a part of the recon but ultimately got turned down.

"Yeah, but I wouldn't be happy about it. This way is going to be a lot better for everyone" Tony watched as Peter worked on the webshooters. "I always thought Spider-Man had organic webs"

"Nope, no webs. But I based my formula on actual spider webs but made adjustments. Had to think of a way to get around and eventually came up with the web shooters" Peter looked up.

"Mind if I take a look?" Tony's curiosity got the better of him. After all, how often did he have other technologically gifted heroes to compare notes with?

Peter tossed one of the small metal devices. "The pressure sensitivity is calibrated for greater force." In other words, spidey strength was useful for more than just punching. The web shooters were made so that only he could use them, or at least someone with above average finger strength. This was for avoiding misfires and so that the average joe couldn't just activate them that easily.

After sliding the cuff over his wrist, Tony was discovering just how hard one had to push to get any movement. "Seeing what you mean" he said pulling his middle and ring fingers down as hard as he could. Nothing happened. Soon he was using his other hand to push the small metal pin. It was a lot stronger than it looked. Finally after using all the strength he could possibly put into that one point, a stream of webbing shot out at high speed. Tony quickly released and the web shot in a random direction eventually sticking itself to the ceiling.

"Don't worry, it'll dissolve in a couple hours" Peter laughed getting up to take the shooter Tony had taken off and starting handing it to him.

After wincing from the computer screens that were narrowly avoided, Tony composed himself. "I see you using different kinds of webbing patterns in the papers all the time. I'm assuming you don't have different shooters. So, I'm guessing different pressure, different web?"

Peter nodded, "And movement. You mind?" He offered to do a small demo. One of Peter's favorite perk of being Spiderman was definitely showing off. And how often did he get to do that without getting attacked? Not often enough. After getting the okay, Peter showed several combinations; each of them had to be held or moved just slightly to adjust how it came out.

"I can't believe you made this with home items" Peter handed him the webshooter again so Tony could look over the device. He put it on his wrist and held it up, he closed one eye, aiming. He used his other hand to press the shooter down and it shot out with much better accuracy than last time. Right at that moment the door opened and Rhodey stepped into the shot.

"Oh yeah, having two superheroes in the backyard is great" he said sarcastically, the shot sent him to the ground. Peter and Tony came to help him up.

"Aw Rhodey, you're no fun" Tony laughed at Rhodey's pouty face.

"Ha. Ha." he replied with a glare. He'd get over it. "Is everything ready to go?" Rhodey changed the subject, ignoring the snickering.

Tony cleared his throat and forced a straight face, "yeah. Anytime you're ready."

Peter caught a cab to the city, just a few blocks away from the hotel. Tony wasn't far behind in the stealth armor. Rhodey was receiving audio and visual feeds from the glasses that Tony gave Peter.

"Everyone's in position. You're clear, Peter" Rhodey announced through the comms. Thanks to an earpiece, Peter was tuned in with Team Iron Man.

As planned, Peter walked into the hotel and used a gift certificate paid by Anthony Stark's personal account. This was it was neither suspicious or traceable. Peter received a room key and walked into the elevator. So far everything was going smoothly. The elevator reached the floor and he navigated the hallways. The room was empty as far as any scans could tell. So Peter knocked on the door, no one answered. He used a key card that Tony whipped up that morning and got in easily. Now the pressure was on. "I'm in. Looks like house cleaning was already here" he said quietly, shutting the door behind him.

"Alright, take a look around. You're in the clear" Tony reported, hovering around the building completely undetected.

Peter started sweeping the room, finding a couple bags, but no laptop or phone. Not until he bumped another bag underneath the other bed. Bingo. Pulling out his Spiderman gloves, Peter pulled the laptop case out and opened it up. Inside a custom laptop was strapped to the case. "Got it. Planting the bug now" Peter said before the sound of footsteps could be heard getting closer. The shadows were right outside the door.

"I'm telling you, I heard something" one voice said. The room door opened up and two men stepped in. "I could have sworn I heard a voice" that voice could only be one person. Unicorn. The room however, was untouched.

"I think you've gotten beaten to the head one too many times. Everything is exactly as we left it" the man, Killer Shrike, replied. They shut the door behind them.

As soon as the door closed, Peter wiped his forehead. As soon as he heard the footsteps, he planted the bug, took off his shoes, and he hit the ceiling. Shrike and Unicorn left the door open just long enough for him to get out unnoticed. The webhead took his shoes and untied the laces, which were tied together so that he held them in his teeth. "Thanks for the warning. They were in the room" Peter complained in the elevator.

"Really? I must have been on the other side of the hotel. I didn't even see them"

"I planted the bug anyway. The feed should be going through"

"It is. Thanks. Let's head back" Tony blasted off for the armory. Peter called a cab and got a slower ride to the Rhodes'.


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's Note: I have not been consistent at all. Trying to get back on track. I'll be updating very, very soon. I promise. Next chapter is already in the works. Things have been crazy for a while and are barely getting to a manageable point. Don't worry, I got this. Next chapter will not disappoint. In the meantime, enjoy! **

Back in the compound, Tony, Rhodey, Pepper, and Peter sat around, bored. So far nothing had gone on. The two men had left the room right after they went in and hadn't been back for hours. The connection to the laptop was limited. For any useful information, the laptop had to be turned on. And for the time being, it was a matter of waiting. Evening was approaching before finally, the screens started beeping. Everyone got up from their either reclined or slouched positions. Tony raced to the screens to start going through the data as fast as possible. After a few seconds, he didn't seem happy.

"Billions of dollars worth of Oscorp and Stark tech have been exchanged under the radar. The cannon, force field generator, and a whole lot more we haven't seen yet." Tony kept scrolling through the list.

Peter crossed his arms, "So, if I'm getting all this, Stane is a bad guy and is trying to replicate your tech? That would explain all of this. But how would he get access to Oscorp?"

"Stane has a lot of resources. I'm sure he's found a way in. Now we just have to figure out what the big plan is. The problem is that whatever he's building has fire power. Major fire power. More than we have combined." Tony kept going through the files.

However, as the data went past the screen, it halted. Numbers started flashing by and eventually stopped. "What's going on?" Rhodey asked as Tony typed furiously on the keyboard.

"A hidden encryption. I must have tripped something."

The whole display went black. Then a snowy image showed up. "Iron Man. Spider-Man. I saw a security breach in my system and knew it had to be you two. Must say I'm honored to have two of New York's finest vigilantes. By now you have seen our dirty little secrets. Unfortunately for you boys, there is so much more. Too little, too late I'm afraid." The voice was heavily muffled and even Tony couldn't decode any of the image or audio. "Come play. I have some new toys I'm sure you'll be dying to see." The video blinked off, and so did the data stream. They were cut off. A blinking red dot appeared on a grid map of Long Island. It was there for a few seconds then disappeared as well, reverting back to Tony's normal screens.

"Oh man, and I thought I was bad." Peter remarked. The message was eery and sounded extremely dangerous. Naturally he had to be there. After all, who could decline an invitation like that? "Going downtown?"

"Oh yes." Tony got up and activated his armor.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

"Keep moving!" A repulser beam flew out, illuminating the area around it. His arc reactor and face plate, the only other light in the room.

There were sounds of more fire, and more lights went flying around. "I was just going to sit over there. But I guess I won't now." A cannon blast moved past Spider-Man, showing him for just a moment before hitting a wall.

Tony rolled his eyes from behind his helmet. When he and Peter arrived at the old subway station, all power was turned off upon arrival. They were greeted by enforced doors keeping them locked in with the cannon from days ago. This time, however, the weapon was shielded by the force field. It's power source? A modified sphere using Stark's laser harness technology, similar to the device used to create the living laser. With some help from Oscorp tech, the former harness was creating the energy it was originally intended to make.

This was getting really old really fast. Peter had nothing to rely on but his spidey-sense to dodge the potentially painful blasts. "Any ideas on how to shut it down?" It was going so fast, alternating between Spider-Man and Iron Man. Any time one would get close, the laser would fire at it.

"Working on it." Algorithms were moving past Tony's vision as Rhodey controlled the suit.

"You need to think of something and fast. I can't do this forever." Rhodey came in through the line.

"I second that. That last one almost took my head off." Peter chimed in.

"Working on it!" Tony repeated, still going through all the information, trying to make sense of most of it. The work was much sloppier than what he came up with.

A few close calls later, finally he figured something out. "Okay, judging by the upgrades in the power source, it looks like the fix in the instability is just a patch. If we can somehow get into the systems, I could probably take that patch out, causing the sphere to implode and shut down the cannon."

Peter nodded, "okay, okay. Good." He moved out of the way as a laser incinerated the wall next to him. "But, uh, how do you plan on getting through to the systems with that forcefield?"

Rhodey moved Tony's suit out of the way of a blast. "Almost there." Tony had nightvision technology integrated into the armor's optical systems. He was looking for a way to get that forcefield down around the power source. If they could get that sphere powered down, they could shut down the cannon and the field generator. "There! Jump down about fifty feet to your right and feel around for a doorway. Restroom. " Restroom meant mirror.

"Got it" Peter leaped through the air until landing on the ground. He still had to avoid fire, but once behind the wall, he was almost safe. He quickly traced along the wall along the beyond gross men's room and finally found the surface of what he was looking for. He made quick work of the mounts and took the mirror, as well as a few chunks of wall and ran out.

Tony was quick to retrieve the mirror from Peter and angled the mirror to deflect the beam, just enough to keep the mirror from melting. but plenty accurate to disable the forcefield. Once it was down, the light of the field flickering caught Peter's eye and the webhead launched the sphere to Iron Man who caught it and started editing the systems.

In a matter of seconds, Tony started getting the patch to reverse. Any alterations to the systems were being deleted. Fifteen seconds went by and the device shorted. Tony crushed the sphere into useless scrap. No one would be getting that thing working again.

With the power source down, the other two fields came down quickly. Iron Man's blasts were more than enough to get rid of the cannon and the generator. The threat was demolished.

"Nice work." Peter congratulated the armored hero. It almost seemed too easy, despite being nearly roasted. Kind of anti-climatic. But any master plan you could walk away from….

"Same. We don't make a half bad team." Tony agreed, following up the stairs. Melting through the metal cage was easy now that he had time. Spider-man and Iron Man exited the subway, getting ready to get home.

But it wasn't close to being over yet.

Cars flew up in fiery explosions. Alarms blared in every direction. Lights were flickering everywhere throughout the city. And it was coming straight for the teen heroes.

"We're not done." Peter stated, webbing up into the air to confront the explosions.

Tony took to the skies, not far behind.

Two figures came walking slowly down the streets, destruction in their path. At first neither hero knew who they were, but as they approached, they figured it out. There was a dramatic costume change, but the two walking down the streets were definitely newly improved Unicorn and Killer Shrike. Bigger guys, bigger suits, and much bigger guns. These hardly seemed like the same two idiots from a few months back. Tony's scans showed so much energy, it was tipping the scales. Oscorp, Stark Industries, both intertwined into two walking weapons.

Spider-Man perched on a street light. "Something tells me they're not here to turn themselves in."


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: Took a little bit longer than expected, but here it is! Chapter 13! **

"Move around to the back!" Tony yelled, firing a repulsor beam at Unicorn, who moved around it easily. The turquoise villain came charging at the airborne Iron Man and leapt up, bringing Tony into the pavement.

Peter bent backwards to avoid another laser fire from Killer Shrike. "Kind of" He jumped out of the way of another blast, "busy here!" Peter hopped backwards to land on an abandoned taxi. "Is it me, or are these guys a whole lot better than our first encounter?" Once again, he was chased from his perch by Killer Shrike and went swinging to meet the floating supervillain.

Tony eventually got out of Unicorn's hitting range and chucked a mailbox at the guy, which he plowed right through. "You have no idea." Iron Man once again took to the skies and was running every possible scan on both villains. Besides the obvious tech upgrades, Tony was getting the feeling that these two were literally upgraded on both physical and mental levels. Traces of a weird chemical were coming up. "Does the name 'Globulin Green' mean anything to you?" It had taken a whole lot of digging, but Tony had come up with a positive match for the chemicals in their opponents' bloodstream.

Stopping instantly, Peter's eyes widened. "No" he whispered to himself. Then he replied to Tony, "too much. Don't tell me these goons have it?"

"Large amounts." Tony blasted Shrike out of mid-air. "Should I be worried?" As if the answer wasn't already presenting itself.

Spiderman hooked Unicorn into the side of a bus. "Extremely. The last time I encountered someone with controlled doses, it was bad. Really, really bad." Harry's life would always be upside down because of Norman's choices….Harry! Could he have been behind this? Supplying Stane with Oscorp tech? Why? To get back at him? At Spiderman? Why? It wasn't his fault! Norman chose his path. He tried to help him, but….

"Look out!" Tony called, snapping Peter out of his thoughts. The webhead jumped out of the way just in the knick of time of an SUV.

Spidey had to figure this out somehow. "They're enhanced. Almost as powerful as I am." They couldn't just wait around until the formula wore off. Who knew how long that would take? In the meantime, the heroes were getting slaughtered.

"Oh that's wonderful. Just fantastic!" The sarcasm was strong in that one. Tony used his force field to knock Unicorn away. His armor's defense was getting lower with every hit.

Globulin Green, super armored suits, upgraded weapons? What happened to the B-listers that Iron Man talked about? Someone did not want those two walking away. Spiderman grabbed onto Shrike, ripping away one of the new laser cannons attached to his shoulder. "Careful, you might take an eye out." He quipped, jumping far out of the way.

"We can't keep this up forever. " Tony stated, knocking Unicorn back a few yards.

"You're telling me! Try not having a suit of armor." Peter bent backwards and sideways multiple times to avoid rapid laser fire.

"Noted. But we need a plan." More hitting. More punching. More pain.

"Hey, don't look at me, you're the genius with the flying suit." Webs shot out, blocking Shrike's path for a while, buying Peter some distance. He was standing little chance against this kind of arsenal.

For what seemed like eternity, the heroes were fighting relentlessly against the rage-filled villains. After thirty minutes of back and forth, the teenage heroes were starting to lose their ground. The supplier of the globulin green must have given these guys max dosage because fighting the Hulk would have been an easier task. These guys were fast, agile, able to counter pretty much anything thrown at them, and armed to the teeth.

Spiderman was thrown off to the side, getting up for the ump-teenth time. His suit was starting to come apart at the webs. But he wouldn't give up. The webhead got to his feet, but another laser blast sent him flying, crashing then rolling again. Every fiber of his being was screaming in pain. But there was no way he could give up.

Iron Man was taken up by Killer Shrike who then proceeded to launch the battered suit from gut-wrenching heights. The red and gold hero crashed into pavement and scraped across the unforgiving ground, bouncing a few times then sending sparks flying everywhere. Alarms and notifications were going off like the Fourth of July inside Tony's helmet. Rhodey and Pepper's concern reached both heroes.

It wasn't working. Fighting these suped up villains was proving futile. They were going to get themselves killed at that rate. They needed to think of something and fast. Neither of them would last long if they kept getting batted around like that. Both had seen their fair share of beatings, but nothing like this.

"I've got it!" Iron Man announced, distracting his attacker momentarily, long enough to launch himself backwards. "Spiderman, get going!" He yelled before turning off the external speakers. It was now a private conversation between the Armory, Peter, and tony. "Peter, keep them off me and start getting some distance. I have an idea, but I need some time. Can you get them going?" He hated to ask that of Peter and leave him alone, but something needed to be done and he was going to need the computer systems.

"Um…." Peter jumped back onto a mailbox. "I'll see what I can do." He wasn't so sure, and he would have loved to know what was going on in the billionaire's head. But he trusted him.

"Great." Tony got up and blasted off, Killer Shrike was hot in pursuit. Until he heard the sing-song call of Spiderman.

"Oh boys~" Peter called, gaining the attention of both villains. Straining every muscle in his body, Spiderman hauled a mid-sized sedan back with his webbing like a super slingshot. As soon as they looked around, it was released. The car shot out, hitting both Unicorn and Killer Shrike with a small explosion thanks to a leaky fuel line and the villains attempting to blow it up with lasers.

And with that, Iron Man blasted away top speed, out of sight.

Now Spiderman was all alone with two of the deadliest opponents he had ever faced. And he had been against some gnarly foes. "Seems like my tag partner left. Guess you'll have to settle for me." Killer Shrike was looking for the Armored hero after recovering. It didn't take long for both to start pursuing Peter in a crazy game of Destroy and Chase.

Racking up millions of dollars of property damage, Peter led the way while Killer Shrike and Unicorn pursued him. They were right on his proverbial tail! There were times when Shrike would get really close and then Spiderman would end up flipping backwards mid-swing, launching himself onto a side of a building where Unicorn would then try to blast him out of existence.

By now he was starting to get exhausted. He was running on fumes. It was insanity. He hoped whatever Tony was doing, he would hurry up. There was no way Peter could keep that chase up forever.

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As soon as Tony had left, his course changed to go back down to the subway station where the crushed bits of cannon and field generator laid lifeless. "Rhodey! Pull up everything you can for the specs to these." A direct line to the Armory was opened.

"There's not much more you can do, man. It doesn't look good." Rhodey said, viewing the wrecked pieces of machinery all around Tony.

"Neither will Peter if I don't try. These are the only things I know that can generate the power we need to take down Shrike and Unicorn." Tony had already begun putting parts back together.

With a sigh, but not seeing any other solution, Rhodey began digging through Tony's files. Finally a few that were flagged important. "Okay, sending them to you now."

"Awesome. Just a second." Tech specs started scrolling over Tony's vision. He began salvaging everything he could. The cannon was beaten up, but with some tweaking, it looked much better.

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"Slowing down, guys! I think I'm catching a second wind." More like fifth wind by then, but he wasn't about to say that. Never faltering, Peter managed to keep them going for blocks. Around corners, back the other way, even around a building. Turns out he wasn't too bad at stalling. "You know, they say travelling makes you wiser, but about now, I'm starting to think 'they' are wrong." That trip had cause nothing but pain! And now he was going up against them.

Peter was pretty sure there was a huge helicarrier full of specially trained agents hovering above New York. You'd think they could spare a few men for this. They were kind of wrecking Long Island. Well, he was leading a pair of super-charged villains through the city, but that was not his fault! He needed to do something with them that didn't include using him as a punching bag.

Landing on a nearby rooftop, he seemed to have lost the two walking weapons. "Please tell me you're almost done. I'm already on my third set of web cannisters." During the initial fight with Unicorn and Killer Shrike, he had run out mid-fight. He had been on defense so much that he had no choice to but to keep his distance. Anything else would get him crushed. His field trip through Long Island wasn't helping either. Between the commute and trying to barricade some cross-streets so that civilians wouldn't get in the line of fire, he was on his last set of webs. Never good.

There was delay, Tony must have been busy. Unfortunately he couldn't wait. The ledge he was hiding/strategically taking shelter behind was blown up. Peter replaced the empty web cartridges with fresh ones. Killer Shrike came up. "Can't you see I'm trying to talk here?" Peter asked, mockingly. Then proceeded to blind the airborne villain in le eyeballs with le webbing. "See what I did there? Ha." Spidey jumped off the building into a free fall, catching himself, using the momentum to gain speed. "Even in the face of imminent destruction, I still have it." At this point, his banter was the only thing keeping him sane. Because inside, he was freaking out. WHERE WAS IRON MAN?

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Peter had called at a really bad time. Tony was at a crucial point in repairing the field generator. It was basically the defining point in whether or not it would take the energy charge, or immediately implode. Unfortunately it wasn't as simple as connecting the blue wire.

The chip inside the machine was so damaged. Much like everything else in that tarnished shell. But it wasn't completely lost. When a few lights came on, Tony let out a breath. It worked. He opened the communication links back on. "Peter, where are you?"

"Oh you know, corner of Pain Street and Suffering Avenue." He flipped up onto a balcony ledge, dodging some laser fire. "Um, hold on a sec." Manhattan, he knew like the back of his webslingers. Long Island, completely lost. Diving for the street, Spidey tried to catch a glimpse of one of the intersection streets. Before it was completely blown up. "Any chance you can GPS?" He couldn't stay in one place long enough.

"Yeah. Hang on….Rhodey?"

"On it. There you go." His voice came in.

When the coordinates got to Tony, Iron Man was on the move with two very important pieces of equipment. "On my way."

Back with Spiderman, he was still keeping the parade of destruction moving. "Yay" It sounded more sarcastic than he meant it to.

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"Okay. Take a right at your next intersection and then a left at the next one." Tony finished the set up. Now it was up to Peter to get the baddies to come under the box so he could pull the stick.

The webslinger sighed, "aye aye. I hope you know this is going on my list of things that I never want to do again. It's all fun and games until two insanely upgraded crazies are on your tail. And not the fun kind."

Two blocks later, "here we come!" And in the next moment, Spiderman appeared around the corner. "You aren't serious."

As the street came into view, he saw Iron Man with the death cannon and the field energy-thing activated with Iron Man in it. "I am. I'm channeling power into the cannon. All you have to do is aim."

"And then if I miss, you'll be a dead battery and I'll just be dead. Great plan." Peter launched himself forward, leaving the other two in the dust, finally able to go full speed and lose them. He ran behind the controls.

"Trust me, if you have any better suggestions, feel free to share with the rest of the class." Tony said, preparing his armor for the power drain. This time, he wasn't turning on the limiters. His suit was giving off so much juice, it would give the Living Laser a headache. With the auto-firing disabled from when they shut it down in the subway, it was all up to Peter.

Of course, it also meant the fields protecting the generator and cannon were gone, leaving the one that drew power from the armor. Peter would have to take down the villains before they got a chance to destroy anything important.

"This is crazy!" Peter aimed as soon as the two villains came running around the corner.

"How's your aim?" Tony asked, getting nervous about his draining power levels.

"I'm not street pizza, so I think that's pretty good." Spidey senses for the win! They basically did all the aiming for him. Without them he would not be able to operate as smoothly as he did. "And here. We. Go." He lined up the cannon and took the shot. Took out Killer Shrike. He went down and did not get back up.

"Hurry!" The suit was drawing from his heart implant reserve now.

"Trying." Unicorn was moving. Then finally, the cannon fired off. Though the speed of the laser was almost invisible to the human eye, it seemed like an eternity before they could tell if the shot had hit it's target…..

"YES!" Peter cheered, shutting down the cannon and the field generator, releasing Tony. It had so little power now, but it would be enough to get them home.

"We did it." Tony breathed. In the comm links, Pepper and Rhodey were silent for a whole two seconds before there was a mini party on the other end.

Peter swung over to the toasted villains. Tony's suit was going back into power saving mode so he would take care of making sure there weren't any getaways. Killer Shrike and Unicorn were still breathing, but when the globulin green wore off, they were definitely going to need an icepack.

**Author's note (again): What is this? Whoa, a second note?! By George I do believe it is! Hey guys! So just wanted to put this out there, a sequel will be coming out to this story! Still in the planning process, but it shall happen. That doesn't mean that this story is done, but I'm trying to get a head start, so that the wait won't be as long in between chapters, like this one has been. (I repeat: This story is not done! Still some more to come!)What are some things you'd like to see happen in the next story?**

**Also be sure to check out my new Tumblr Page (gogopterazord)(link also on my profile) for more of moi! It's still in the works, but mostly operational. I'll have updates for all my stories, randomness that I find amusing, art, and more in the future. Would love to start doing Q&A, so if you sent some questions, you would be infinitely cool. Not that you aren't already, because you are just for reading my stories. Ta!**

**But since you're here: I have posted my collab story "Avatar: Next Generation" on this account. It was so fun to write that we just had to share it. I've also made another crossover story. "Solus Simul" Chapter 1 is now out. More information on EVERYTHING story related can be found on my Tumblr. Now I am done. Bye!**


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